


When I Fall

by StarlitSky



Category: Biker Mice From Mars
Genre: 90s Series, Accident, Drama, F/M, Humor, Romance, Temptation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-31
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-11-11 03:15:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 41,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlitSky/pseuds/StarlitSky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a spontaneous vacation meant for a little R&R turns tragic, the bros struggle to regain what was lost. But along the way, Vinnie winds up finding something he thought he would never have...only now he's in danger of losing everything. Vinnie-centric.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not related to any of my other works. Relax&Enjoy.

The trip had been his idea. Which was only natural--most of the best ideas were his. Things had turned quiet in Chi-Town, thanks to the three of them leveling Limburger Tower (again) a few days ago. It would still be a while before it was reconstructed, and like always there was a brief lull in mischievous activity, which generally lasted until the tower was complete again. And as always, it felt nice at first to have a breather...but it quickly grew boring. Which was why he suggested they do something about it.

Charley was the one to actually come up with the idea of leaving town for a little while. Get away from the fast pace of the city and head a little south, where things were a bit more rustic. Quiet and down to earth. They could slow things down for a change, kick back, enjoy a little nature...

It all sounded pretty boring to them, but Charley had retorted that a location was only ever as boring as the people in it. You couldn't really argue with her there, and they soon came around to her way of thinking. Well, he had actually changed his mind first and then verbally badgered his bros until they gave in.

It was one of his many gifts; talking people into something. Or talking his way out of something. He was pretty sure there wasn't anything his mouth couldn't do for him. But when he was growing up, his mother had repeatedly warned him that the one thing it was guaranteed to do was get him into trouble. In fact, the wildness of his nature and the abrasiveness of his personality were a perfect recipe for trouble--which was exactly the way he liked it. Living on the edge of danger was the only way to go.

Sometimes his bros echoed his mother's words and warned him to be careful. It seemed like everyone he met did at some point. Everybody was forever telling him to watch out. But what no one ever considered--himself included--was that when the day came when his recklessness finally caught up with him, it would be someone else who got hurt.

There were no thoughts of danger or risk in any of their minds the morning they packed for their little vacation. They each grabbed the essentials: lunch boxes, fishing tackle, a few changes of underwear, toothbrushes, and a variety of camping gear. No motels for them; they were going to rough it. The weather was warm and there was no rain in the forecast, so all they really needed was a set of soft blankets to curl up on, with the sky and stars serving as their tent.

And of course they needed to bring along a cooler full of root beer and hot dogs, and supplies to build a fire to roast them over--no trip would be complete without that. After everything was packed into the back of Charley's truck and Charley had closed up the garage, she left an 'on vacation' sign in the window, got into her truck and drove off, with the three of them following close behind.

As much as they loved the city, there was something freeing about leaving the confines of the heavily trafficked streets and heading out on the open road for a change. They hit the expressway around mid-morning, and once there, there was little to do other than sit back, radio blaring, and blaze along at high speed.

It could get a little boring, since the local authorities would frown if instead of staying in your lane you wove wildly around other vehicles, so the best thing to do was to just sort of zone out for a while. Let the mind clear and the impulses fade away, and just feel the wind and listen to the roar of the engine. It was kind of relaxing, actually. Like high octane meditation.

The four of them drove for a few hours, made a quick stop at a roadside café for lunch, then drove for a couple hours more. It was some time in the early afternoon when they rode into the outskirts of a cozy little town--a picturesque, postcard-ready kind of place.

There were shops that looked like they hadn't been remodeled in at least fifty years, quaint little cottage homes, a town square, and multiple parks and historical sites. The three of them weren't familiar with the place, but Charley easily navigated the narrow streets, which were lined with old fashioned-looking lamp posts. Cheerful banners bearing names of businesses and places of interest were tied to the posts, and spaced along the sidewalks beneath them were large planters brimming with flowers.

It was a sleepy kind of town, but as long as they served hot dogs and root beer and there was room to ride, Vinnie was cool with it. And in the distance, just beyond the slightly shabby buildings, there were miles of open fields, and beyond them were thick lines of trees. Not a common sight in Chicago, but around here, in virtually any direction you looked there was a forest or wooded area on the horizon.

After driving through the center of town, Charley pulled up at a curb outside of a large park and got out. As he and his bros parked alongside her truck, Vinnie noted that it looked like they had come here on a good day, because there was some kind of local festival going on. Music was playing in the distance, kids were playing on the bevy of playground equipment, and vendors were set up out on the grass, peddling everything from useless junk to popcorn.

As he looked around at the crowd milling around, roaming up and down the rows of vendors and perusing the merchandise, Vinnie remarked, "You think we'll stand out any?"

Snickering, Throttle looked over the locals with him, most of them casually dressed in t-shirts, shorts, and sundresses. "Nah," he decided. "Though we're probably the only bikers for miles."

Charley smirked as she came around to the back of her truck and pulled out her suitcase. "You never know," she said wryly. "There are bikers everywhere, and events like these never fail to cater to them."

"Really?" wondered Modo.

She nodded and pointed across the lawn to a row of tables in the distance, with a black backdrop set up behind it displaying a variety of t-shirts and vests featuring images of flames, chains, skulls, and an assortment of bike brand logos. Male and female patrons that weren't dressed all that differently from them were scoping out the tables, which were covered in a wide range of belts, belt buckles, patches, bracelets, and collectible knives.

"I think that's you three squared away for the next couple of hours," Charley noted, laughing at the way the three of them practically started salivating. "I'm heading to the restroom to change into something better suited for this weather; I'll meet you later, okay?"

She headed off, while the three of them scurried in the opposite direction, though they took note of the hot dog vendor they passed on the way. Vinnie quickly lost all track of time, gazing over row after row of biker-related goodness, but what really caught his attention wasn't a t-shirt or a belt, but one of the framed posters that were propped up on the ground in front of the tables.

"That one's mine," he announced, pointing to a large poster bearing the image of an eagle soaring against a smoky background, with a glistening bike beneath it racing over the tops of flaming letters that read 'Born to Ride Free.'

"Where you gonna put it?" Modo wanted to know.

"Back at the scoreboard," Vinnie responded logically. "We've got walls, don't we?"

"Yeah, but they're already pretty full," Throttle reminded him.

"I'll make room," Vinnie insisted.

"You mean, we'll make room for you."

"You catch on quick."

Unfortunately, he didn't have enough money on him. Vinnie practically whimpered as his bros dragged him away. "You'll forget about it in a minute," Throttle said unsympathetically.

"I already forgot about it," said Modo, yawning. "I'm ready to dive into those dogs we saw earlier."

Vinnie continued to grumble to himself, but he followed his bros back to the hot dog stand. There was a line and they had to wait, and his eyes wandered as he tapped his foot impatiently--and then his gaze fell on something that made the rest of the world vanish, like a quiet puff of breath snuffing out a candle.

Over at the edge of the lawn a few feet from the hot dog stand was an ice cream vendor. There were rows of eager young kids waiting for their cones...and standing with them was someone a little older. Someone wearing a breezy white sundress with matching sandals, the skirt displaying the graceful curve of her legs, the slender straps snug against the softness of her shoulders. She suddenly let out a laugh and put a hand on her skirt as the wind picked up, the bright sunshine catching the golden highlights in her auburn hair as the wind teased glossy tendrils around her face.

Vinnie was dumbstruck and tongue-tied. When Charley-girl said she was going to change, he had pictured jeans and a t-shirt, not... _that_. Unaware of his gawking, she stepped away from the vendor with a chocolate and vanilla swirl cone in hand, absently reaching up to push her billowing hair back from her eyes. Her mood was relaxed and casual, and she obviously thought nothing about how she looked right now, but to Vinnie it was like she had just stepped straight out of a dream.

It wasn't the first time he had thought so. Since they first met she'd struck him speechless repeatedly--which was _not_ an easy thing to do--just by being her. It was in moments like these he felt all his careful layers of bravado peel away, until he felt strangely small. Anything but special. And the exact opposite of worthy.

An ache of longing formed deep in his heart as he continued to gaze at the beautiful figure that moved almost tauntingly before his eyes, and he found himself thinking--hoping, and not for the first time--that maybe someday, somehow, he would be good enough for her.

It was a depressing thought and he never let it stick around for long. He just tried all the harder to get her to notice him, and that meant being himself--loudly. He still hadn't gotten her to notice him in the way he wanted her to, but at least he never failed to get her attention.

"Hey, sweetheart," he called out, yelling over the heads of the throng of people between them. "You want a root beer with that?"

Charley looked in his direction, but she took her time weaving through the crowd, occasionally taking delicate licks of her ice cream as she made her way over. "No thank you," she said crisply when she finally reached the three of them. "I'm good."

Now that she was close, Vinnie was having an awfully hard time not blatantly staring. The cut of her sundress was simple, the cotton material plain, but it looked great against her creamy skin and hugged all her curves in just the right way. Behind him he suddenly heard a strange coughing sound, and he tore his eyes away to see Modo turning his head and averting his gaze, his cheeks reddening slightly beneath his gray fur. Throttle looked equally surprised, his eyebrows raising above his specs as he looked Charley's change of clothes over.

He looked a little too long and hard for Vinnie's taste, and he elbowed him in the ribs with a scowl. Throttle didn't say anything; he just turned away from Charley and looked at Vinnie instead, an irritatingly smug and knowing grin on his face. Vinnie scowled harder and elbowed him again, but Throttle merely snickered in response before turning his attention back to the hot dog stand.

Vinnie continued to glare at him for a moment more, then faced Charley again, his expression quickly shifting to a pouty, begging look. "Charley-girl, do you have any cash on you?"

* * *

By early evening, they had scoured every inch of the large park and scored a small pile of useless goodies each, plus consumed massive amounts of junk food. The sun was just starting to dip in the sky, painting the world with hues of red and gold, and Vinnie felt full and relaxed as the four of them walked back to where they'd parked.

"We should go find a camping spot before it gets dark," Charley noted, shading her eyes as she squinted at the horizon.

The three of them tagged along behind her again as Charley backed her truck away from the curb and followed the road as it curved around the park, turning off onto a dirt road that wove through thickening groups of trees, until they were riding alongside a dense wooded area that went for miles. Vinnie didn't know much about Earth trees (or any kind of trees for that matter) but he recognized the distinct shapes and leaves of towering oaks, elms, and maples, mixed in with species he didn't know and heavy undergrowth.

When they passed a break in the trees, forming a wide path that descended a steep hill from the roadside, Throttle suddenly pulled to a stop. He and Modo did the same, knowing what Throttle was thinking. Up ahead, Charley slowed down, then backed up a few feet before turning the engine off and hopping out. "It's another mile or so to the campgrounds," she said as she walked up.

"Why bother?" Vinnie asked with a grin. "We'll make our own site."

"A place all to ourselves," Modo added.

Charley looked doubtful. "I still have to find a road that heads down there so I can bring the truck," she reminded them.

"You can come back for it later," Vinnie said firmly. "We need to find a spot before it gets dark, right?"

Without waiting for a response, he snared his tail around her slender waist and lifted her up onto the spot behind him. It was such a habit he did it without thinking, but it wasn't until the skinny appendage was wrapped around her did he remember that something was different; she wasn't wearing her normal outfit right now. He could feel things through the thin fabric of her sundress that he couldn't through the thickness of her usual shirt, from the soft curves of her torso to the gentle warmth of her skin. Her bare shins brushed against his legs as she wiggled around, trying to tuck her skirt modestly in place, before she loosely placed her hands on his shoulders.

It was tempting to tug her forward, until he could feel those other curves that he was used to being particularly tantalized by as they pressed firmly against his back, but he checked himself...for once. His bros chattered as they rode down the hill, while nerves kept him uncharacteristically quiet as he followed along behind them. He noticed that Charley also stayed silent, and instead of leaning forward and slipping her hands around to his chest, like she usually did, she remained sitting upright, her grip on his shoulders staying light.

Was she aware of the differences her thinner attire was making right now, too?

Her distance and silence made him wonder a little, and as he rode on through the dense, overgrown path they were on, his mind wandered...or rather his tail did. He tried not to, but he kept loosening and tightening it around her waist, acting like he couldn't quite get the right hold. In reality, he was discreetly (or at least he hoped he was being discreet about it) exploring the subtle shape of her torso. He could feel everything; the edge of her hipbones, the bottom of her ribcage, even her belly button. Her skin was so nice and warm, and he could easily imagine how soft it was, just out of his reach beneath the barrier of her dress...

He knew he was getting carried away with himself, and that she was probably going to notice as he snaked the very tip of his tail away from the coils of the rest of it and drifted it over the curve of her belly, just below her navel. When Charley's hands suddenly tightened on his shoulders, Vinnie felt his heart pop into his mouth, and he cringed inwardly as he braced himself for the incoming verbal--and probably physical--beating.

"Let go."

Surprised, Vinnie cleared his throat. "What?" he said, feigning complete innocence.

Behind him, Charley grunted and released his shoulders. "You're holding me too tight--let go," she repeated, a hint of strain in her voice. "I can barely breathe."

Blushing inside his helmet, Vinnie immediately uncoiled his tail and pulled it away. He couldn't just let it hang free, since it would slap against her in the wind, so in the end he hooked it around his own ankle, keeping it safely away from her bare legs. The two of them fell silent again after that, and Charley didn't put her hands on his shoulders again. Feeling uncomfortably self-conscious, Vinnie made sure to steer carefully as he followed the other two around a bend in the dusty path.

They emerged a moment later in a wide clearing, surrounded by swaying trees, spindly bushes and gnarled roots. Wildflowers and green plants grew heavily around the thick tree trunks, and patches of mushrooms were sprouting around a couple of fallen logs. Throttle, who had taken the lead, suddenly pulled to a stop, so he and Modo did the same.

After taking a sniff of the air, Throttle noted, "I smell water."

Modo pulled his helmet off and listened for a moment. "I can hear it, too."

"There's a river up ahead," Charley explained.

The three mice exchanged knowing glances. "Sounds like the perfect spot to kick back and fish," Modo commented.

"Probably plenty of room to make camp and set up a fire," Throttle added, a note of approval in his voice.

Grinning suddenly, Vinnie revved his engine once. "Wanna see who can get there first?"

Like he even needed to ask. He and his bros could turn anything into a competition--which was something Charley-girl didn't quite understand. "Do we _really_ have to turn this into a race?" she asked dryly, as the three bikes lined up at the edge of the clearing and their riders bent forward.

"But of course," said Throttle, as the three of them switched their visors on to keep fluttering leaves and other debris from getting in their eyes.

"And what does the winner get?" Charley wanted to know.

"Gloating rights," Vinnie said promptly.

It was prize enough for anyone. And with a whoop that echoed through the trees, he was off and pulling ahead. Charley had no choice but to hold on, her fingers digging into his shoulders as he poured on the speed. It was growing dimmer and he didn't really know where he was going, and the overgrown path between the thick trees was unclear. It was actually pretty dangerous, cutting through here at top speed--which was exactly why it was so much fun.

The three of them laughed as they swerved dangerously around trees and swapped barbs with each other. Occasionally one of them pulled ahead of him, but never for long. This was one contest he was going to make sure he didn't lose. Not that he really had anything to gain, other than the bragging rights--and of course the opportunity to show Charley-girl just how awesome he really was.

Whooping again, he sped up and rode over a thick root growing across the path, sending his bike momentarily airborne and then bouncing sharply when he landed again. Straight ahead the path headed up a steep rise in the dirt, and he tore up it recklessly as he sensed the other two closing in behind him. He could smell that the river was close now, probably just a few more yards. There was something so elating about all this; the speed, the risk, the competitive fun of it.

And then, as he raced up to the top of the rise, Vinnie saw something that made him let out an unhappy squawk.

As he crested the hill the path turned sharply, but that wasn't what took him by surprise. What made his heart turn over in his chest was the low-slung branch stretching directly in front of him, hanging practically to the ground. Gritting his teeth, he didn't stop to think; he hunkered down as low as he could and thrust his hand out. He managed to snag the shaggy branch and it bent back like rubber from the force of his momentum. He and his bike rode on safely, and he released the branch and sat up with a sigh of relief.

Behind him, he heard a faint twang as the branch snapped back into place, and he noticed that it sounded like his bros' engines were several feet behind him now. The branch would probably slow them down further, he thought, and he eagerly poured on the speed again. It was clear sailing after that, straight down the other side of the hill and out into another clearing. The ground was flat and smooth, the dirt neatly compacted, and turning moist farther ahead...right on up to the river's edge.

Grinning in triumph, he turned sharply around so he was facing the way he came and waited for his bros to catch up. It was almost half a minute later before he saw them, riding almost side by side as they came to the edge of the hill and started down the other side. They were moving awfully slow for a race, Vinnie thought. Unless they realized they had lost and were sulking in defeat.

He continued to grin as they drew nearer, but he noticed that they both had funny looks on their faces. They were frowning hard, but not really in a 'we lost' kind of way. More like a...he couldn't even name the sort of look they both gave him as they pulled to a stop in the clearing.

After a lengthy silence marked by those stony, almost scolding looks, Modo spoke first. "Lose somethin', bro?" he asked, his tone cold.

"Heck no," Vinnie responded firmly. "I won fair and square."

"Forget about the race, Vincent," Throttle snapped. "It's not important."

It was plenty important when you thought you had a chance, Vinnie grumbled inwardly. Typical.

Out loud, he said, "You're just sorry I won."

"Not as sorry as your passenger," Modo told him dryly.

Vinnie opened his mouth to retort...then closed it again. Passenger?

He quickly jerked his head around and looked over his shoulder. The spot behind him was empty.

A cold chill swept over him as an image of himself shoving the branch back flashed through his mind. Suddenly everything else was meaningless and forgotten, and his hands felt numb as he took off like a shot and headed back up the hill. "Charley-girl!"

The area by the offending branch looked empty, and he quickly pulled to a stop and switched his visor off as his eyes swept from side to side. He hadn't bothered to pay attention to the details as he ripped through here before, but now he saw that the right-hand side of the wide path was covered in patches of grass, weeds, and a sparse collection of skinny young trees.

He expected to see Charley-girl standing among them, an extremely sour expression on her face as she dusted herself off and waited for him to pick her up, but there was no sign of a girl in a white dress. He squinted into the distance for a moment, then checked the left side of the path.

The trees were taller and thicker there, growing a handful of feet apart. As he scanned them, Vinnie noticed that they all looked a little funny. It took him several moments to realize why; all of them, including the one with the sagging branch, were growing tilted away from path, like they were leaning in the opposite direction.

As he looked closer, Vinnie saw a tangle of roots growing visibly at the base of each trunk. It was strange, like there was no earth there to hide them...and as he continued to look, Vinnie realized in growing horror that there really wasn't.

Beyond the thin row of slanting trees, the ground stopped. Cut away and made a straight drop. A drop that a slender body could have easily tumbled down, slipping neatly between the trees after being flung off a speeding bike.

The only thing that stopped him from riding straight off the edge was the thought that he might land on Charley-girl when he hit bottom, and the only thing that kept him from flinging himself bodily into orbit without his bike was the firm hand that clamped down on his shoulder as he got up from the seat to do exactly that.

"Don't," Throttle warned. His voice was low and calm, but even then he couldn't completely mask a note of worry. "If you just jump off you could break every bone in your body."

The words thrust an image of Charley into his head, lying on the forest floor, her body broken and bleeding...

Vinnie couldn't withhold a sound of dismay as he jerked his shoulder free. "Thanks, that makes me feel _so_ much better," he snapped.

"We need to find a better way down there," Throttle told him firmly.

At least they were all in agreement that they needed to get down there as quickly as possible. The three of them rode back down the hill, heading in the direction they first came. There wasn't a clear path in either direction other than straight ahead, but the underbrush was thinner along the side of the hill. It was still too thick for them to bring their bikes, plus the dirt was damp and slippery, so they dismounted and went on foot.

Aside from the sheer drop above them, the ground sloped downward at a fairly steep angle for several feet before finally evening out again. Under the waning light of dusk, Vinnie glanced up once, catching a blurred glimpse of the edge in the rapidly deepening gloom. It made his heart turn to ice and his throat tighten, and he didn't even want to try and calculate just how many feet below they were.

The three of them fanned out a little as they searched, Throttle sticking close to the wall of earth just beneath the drop and Modo heading farther out, leaving Vinnie somewhere in the middle. They each called out loudly from time to time, their voices echoing off into the timber. Vinnie noticed that he sounded increasingly upset--afraid--each time he yelled Charley's name, but he didn't care.

All that mattered now was finding her and making sure she was okay. She just had to be okay.

In the growing shadows, everything started to look the same. There was no visible path down here; just scattered trees, ferny undergrowth and more tangled roots and weeds. Vinnie squinted up at the ledge again, gauging that she couldn't possibly have fallen much farther than the spot above with the sagging tree branch. He paused and was just about to call out again--and that was when he heard a soft groan somewhere near his feet.

Relief roiled in his core, and he let out a rush of air as anxious hope filled his heart. He hurried forward, pushing aside the branches of a spindly shrub and not even caring when he felt thorns poke into his palms. For a moment he didn't see anything, but then his gaze fell on white fabric nestled amid the leaves, looking almost ghostly in the gloom.

Taking a second to call back that he had found her, Vinnie all but ran forward and dropped to his knees on the moist ground. For the briefest of seconds, like the shadows were playing tricks with his eyes, Charley looked perfectly safe and unharmed. Like a forest fairy who decided to curl up for a nap, hands folded on her middle with a bed of moss for her pillow.

Then his vision adjusted and he saw that she had one arm draped awkwardly across her chest, her other arm lying limply in the dirt at her side. Her pretty dress was torn and stained, her skin marked with scrapes and muddy streaks. Her head lay to one side, almost resting on her own shoulder. Her face looked almost as ghostly white as her sundress.

"Easy, now," Vinnie heard Throttle say somewhere behind him, as he reached for the prone figure.

Vinnie swallowed thickly and nodded, knowing that he needed to be gentle. His fleeting hope had vanished; he knew for sure that she was hurt. What he didn't know was how badly, and his fingers shook as he slid one arm under her back and carefully cupped her head with his other hand.

Charley made a quiet sound as he lifted her from the ground, though only high enough to cradle her in the crook of his arm. With his free hand he pushed back her tangled hair, searching her face and neck for any serious injuries. At first he didn't see anything, but as he brushed her hair back from her forehead, he noticed that his fingertips were suddenly stained red.

It was a sight that sent his heart plummeting straight into his stomach. Throat constricting, he checked along her hairline carefully and soon traced the source of the blood to her right temple.

After swallowing thickly, he heard himself say weakly, faintly, "She needs a doctor."

"We can't take her on our bikes," Throttle said sensibly. His voice sounded strangely far away. "Let's get her back to her truck."

The next few minutes were like a haze in Vinnie's mind. His body seemed to move by itself, functioning mechanically despite his thoughts being numb. He remembered lifting Charley carefully, like if he so much as squeezed too hard she would shatter, and the next thing he knew Throttle was helping him into the front seat of the truck.

Modo was sitting in the back with their bikes, who were acting as nervous as the three of them felt. Throttle remained the most calm and took his place in the driver's seat, while Modo sat wedged between their bikes with his chin on his knees and looked like he was trying not to cry. Vinnie felt too numb to tear up right now, though part of him wanted to. Part of him wanted to cling to the helpless girl in his arms and let the tears flow, letting everyone know just how sorry he was.

Instead he sat mutely while Throttle drove at a slow pace, knowing that going too fast could be dangerous. Charley mumbled from time to time, and shifted her head occasionally, but Vinnie couldn't tell if she was conscious or not.

Finding the small town's hospital wasn't hard. They asked a girl at a gas station they passed and she pointed them straight to it. A little while later, the three of them sat in numb silence in the waiting room while Charley was taken away for x-rays and other tests.

No one said anything as they each glanced frequently at the clock, but Vinnie knew what they were all thinking. This was his fault. _His_. He had caused this and no one else. You got that, you stupid mouse? he told himself darkly, fists clenching. This is _your_ fault. You did this. This has got to be your biggest screw-up yet.

Yeah. He'd screwed up all right. And yet Charley was the one who had to suffer.

When this thought hit him, the tears that had sneaking up on him all this time finally came, and ducking his head and squeezing his eyes shut as hard as he could did nothing to stop them. And even though he didn't deserve their sympathy, his bros politely looked away and pretended not to notice.

* * *

One thing about being in a small town was how easily people excused your quirks. Sure, they might look at you funny, and whisper behind your back, but they didn't ask questions. They just kind of shrugged and said 'that's big city folk for you.' So even after they had been sitting in the waiting room for several hours, no one came up and wondered if they wouldn't be more comfortable if they took their helmets off.

Nurses and other staff members passed back and forth through the room from time to time, but there was no one else sitting around besides them. It was after hours already and the hospital was quiet except for a murmur of voices in the distance, the soft hum of electronic equipment, the faint beep of monitors.

When a middle-aged man dressed in a doctor's uniform suddenly came into the room, Vinnie was the first to his feet. Calm and polite, the doctor shook each of their hands before getting down to business. "You're the three who brought in the little lady who took the tumble out in the woods, correct?"

Vinnie wasn't in the mood for pleasantries or formalities. "Is she okay?" he asked, nerves making him sound testier than he meant to.

Throttle nudged him, but the doctor didn't look offended. "All things considered, it could have been a lot worse," he said, as he turned and indicated for them to follow. "She has quite a few bumps and bruises, and her left wrist has a tiny fracture running through it, but it's nothing that won't heal in a few short weeks."

Vinnie was so relieved his knees almost buckled. "And that's it?" he wondered, thinking about the blow to her temple.

"Well," the doctor continued cautiously, adjusting his glasses, "it looks like she hit her head when she landed, but we took x-rays and while there's no sign of any fractures, she definitely has a concussion. But her vital signs are strong and when she woke up a little while ago she seemed lucid. We'll monitor her for a little longer, but I see no reason why she shouldn't go home in a day or two."

Vinnie felt his heart lift. "She's awake?" he asked eagerly.

"Can we see her?" Modo wondered tentatively.

"Just for a moment," the doctor advised. "She needs quiet and a lot of rest. Try not to get her excited, all right?"

After leading them to Charley's room, the doctor walked briskly away to attend to other duties, though a nurse hovered nearby as the three of them went in. She didn't say anything as they huddled next to Charley's bed, though Vinnie felt her eyes on them, so he didn't take his helmet off as he knelt at Charley's side.

She was blinking sleepily, though she wasn't quite as pale as before. She had been cleaned up and changed into a hospital gown, and her left hand was wrapped in a flexible brace. It was partly hidden by her hair, but it looked like a roll of cotton and gauze was attached to her temple by a strip of white tape...which probably meant they had shaved a patch of her hair. Thinking about how much she was going to complain about it when they got home almost made him smile.

Instead, he swallowed down the thump that rose into his throat as he gently took her good hand and held it in his own, pressing his other hand over it. His eyes studied her face, noting that even when she was pale and a little banged up...she was still the most beautiful thing in the universe.

As he took a shaky breath and started to speak, he noticed that her eyes were studying him in return. The other two was standing behind him, but since he first came into the room, her gaze had never left his face. Which he knew wasn't necessarily a good thing right now.

"I know this is all my fault," he began unhappily, "and if the first thing you want to do when we get home is sock me in the nose, you can go right ahead. But you know that the last thing I would ever want is for you to be hurt, and I am so, so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"

He tightened his grip slightly, and as she blinked her green eyes a couple of times, he felt Charley curl her fingers around his. Her forehead puckered just the tiniest bit. "Sure," she said softly.

Vinnie let out the breath he hadn't even noticed he was holding and started to relax. He suddenly wanted to reach out and hug her, but that probably wouldn't be a good idea right now. But maybe, he thought to himself, she wouldn't mind if he kissed her hand.

He should probably wait until they were home and no one else was looking, though. Or maybe, he thought wryly, he'd wait until after she'd socked him in the nose. If he timed it right it could actually be pretty funny, and he loved making her laugh.

He was still debating, his eyes glued to Charley's face, when a slight frown touched her lips. Her expression had turned puzzled. "I just have one question," she said, her voice still soft and weak from her ordeal.

Vinnie smiled and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "Go ahead. You can ask me anything."

Charley blinked again, her frown deepening. "Who are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

For the second time tonight, the three of them sat rigidly in the waiting room, tensely glancing at the clock every few minutes as they waited anxiously for a status report. Vinnie was so numb with shock he could barely feel the floor beneath his feet, and there was a funny humming sound in his ears.

Charley-girl didn't know who he was. The very concept seemed impossible. How could anyone forget him? He made a point of acting as unforgettable as possible.

And that was just the problem, he remind himself tersely. Your actions are exactly the reason why this happened. You're the reason why she can't even remember your name. So _now_ what are you going to do?

His first thought was to act louder and brassier than ever--but that was the kind of behavior that caused this to happen in the first place. Maybe he should tone it down instead. Maybe he should act quieter, more polite...and not at all like himself. It might be a good idea, since acting like himself had never succeeded in getting her attention anyway. Maybe he'd have better luck acting, well, not like himself.

But how would that help her remember him, if he acted like someone she didn't know? Behaving like a stranger might sabotage her chances of getting her memory back, but behaving like his wild self might get her into more trouble, or--

Head spinning, Vinnie dropped his face into his hands with a tired grunt. He couldn't believe he was in a situation where he actually needed to think about something like this. It wasn't remotely funny, yet he suddenly felt like he could burst out laughing. He tried to hold them back, but a couple of snickers escaped, his shoulders shaking from the effort to stop them.

From the seat across from him, he heard Throttle let out a sigh. "Vincent, you're hysterical. Take a break and go grab a root beer or something."

Vinnie got up from his seat mechanically, barely seeing where he was going as he wandered out of the waiting room and down an adjoining hallway. There were no overhead lights on, but he tracked a distant glow and a faint hum to a row of vending machines lined up next to a set of restrooms. He bought a root beer from the soda machine and paced the hallway as he guzzled it, then pitched the empty can before hurrying back to the waiting room.

As he was returning to his seat, the doctor from earlier suddenly strolled into the room, a clipboard tucked under one arm. "How is she?" Vinnie asked hopefully, as Throttle and Modo quickly got to their feet.

"She fell asleep shortly after you three left her room," the doctor responded. "Which is good. She needs plenty of rest right now."

Adjusting his glasses, he looked the three of them over, then asked, "Approximately how many feet did you say she fell?"

Thinking about the shadowed edge of the hillside brought a suspicious burning sensation to Vinnie's eyes. Swallowing, he looked down at his feet, while Throttle cleared his throat to answer. "We didn't exactly stop to study it, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was about fifteen to eighteen feet from the top of the hill to the point where the slope in the ground evened out. But she landed pretty close to the base of the hill, so she most likely fell around ten, maybe twelve feet at the most."

"I see."

The doctor took a moment to write something on his clipboard, then looked at them again. "I know it sounds high when you first hear it, but people have survived falls from much more severe heights. Still, she was quite fortunate."

Vinnie lifted his head, his expression incredulous. "Fortunate?" he echoed. "She's lost her memory."

"It's not lost, exactly," the doctor responded calmly. "More like misplaced."

"Ain't that the same thing?" Modo asked dryly.

"Not necessarily. Think of it this way; lost more or less means something is gone forever. Misplaced means something is still around, you just don't know where it is. Her memories are all still there, inside her mind. She simply needs a little help getting reconnected with them."

Vinnie didn't want to let his hopes get up too high, but he couldn't help perking up a bit. "And do you think she can?" he asked.

"It's difficult to say. The human mind is a very complex thing, and no case of head trauma should be considered typical. There's no way of judging at this point if a patient will regain all, part, or none of their memory. However," he hastily added, as the three bikers drooped simultaneously, "I feel perfectly comfortable in this instance saying that the young lady in question shows great promise in recovering her memories. After any sort of head injury it's standard procedure for us to test for exactly this sort of problem, and though she seemed a little disoriented when she first woke up, when prompted she was able to correctly identify a few basic things, such as her name, the year, and so on. As a result, we didn't suspect she was suffering from amnesia at first."

Vinnie felt himself start to perk up again. "So, it should only be temporary then, right?"

"I see no reason at this point why it shouldn't be. We'll run a few more tests in the morning, and if she's strong enough, we'll try out a few visual and audio prompts. You never know, sometimes it's the simplest thing that stirs up recognition."

The doctor paused, his eyes drifting over the three of them again. "I am assuming each of you are close friends of the patient, or family, or...?"

The three mice exchanged glances. "She's the best friend we have on planet Earth," Vinnie said firmly.

"In that case, I would recommend coming back during visiting hours. I can tell she's someone very important to you, but it's late and you should all get some sleep. You should come back in the morning though, because it would definitely do her good to keep friendly faces around."

With that, he bade them each goodnight and left the room. "Yeah, well, there's kind of a problem with that," Throttle muttered as soon as the doctor was gone.

Vinnie wrinkled his nose unhappily, knowing exactly what he meant. Paying her a visit under different circumstances was one thing, but when she couldn't remember who they were? Vinnie had a feeling that showing her their faces now would be taken as the exact opposite of friendly.

* * *

None of them really got any sleep before morning. They couldn't afford to stay anywhere and they had lost any urge to camp out in the woods, so they slept in the truck out in the hospital parking lot. Modo curled up in the back, while Vinnie and Throttle tossed and turned uncomfortably in the front seat. Come sunrise they stumbled out and went to scrounge up something for breakfast, then went back to the hospital and roamed the first floor until visiting hours began.

While they waited they stopped in the gift shop, where Vinnie pooled what was left of his money with Throttle and bought a huge vase of flowers. Modo picked out a big blue teddy bear wearing a silly smile and holding a heart-shaped balloon displaying the words 'I hope you feel better beary soon!' In spite of everything, the other two couldn't help cracking up every time they looked at it.

The moment visiting hours started, they headed up to the second floor to Charley's room. The nurse from yesterday was there, twisting open the blinds covering the back window and bathing the room with warm light. The head of the adjustable hospital bed was tilted up, and Charley sat up straighter as they came in, a smile spreading across her face--which made Vinnie's heart lift with hope.

Only for a second. As he searched her face for some sign of recognition, he quickly realized that behind the seemingly friendly gesture was a distinct look of puzzlement, of curiosity. She was glad to see non-staff members during this strange time, but she still had no idea who they were.

Forcing a brave face to mask the sadness that settled in his heart, Vinnie stepped forward and cleared his throat. "I, uh, thought these might brighten up the room a little bit," he said uncertainly, setting the vase down on the nightstand-like table beside the bed. The clear glass had an iridescent coating on it, making it glisten like a rainbow in the morning sunlight.

Did Charley-girl even like flowers? For a moment he stood there, feeling blank and stupid, as he realized that he didn't know. They had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he thought about how she wasn't exactly a girly-girl...but even then, everybody liked flowers, right? Not that it really mattered. Charley-girl couldn't remember what she did and didn't like.

He almost expected her to frown and ask him if she liked flowers, but instead she scooted closer to the fragrant blossoms, her face brightening. "Thank you," she said, looking genuinely pleased. "They're lovely."

Vinnie almost sighed in relief. Looking bashful, Modo stepped forward and handed her his gift. Charley accepted the goofy-looking toy with a laugh, hugging its plush body as she rested back against her pillow. Fidgeting, Throttle smirked and said, "I, um, went halfsies on the flowers."

Laughing softly again, she trailed her eyes over each of them for a moment. "You're all so sweet." A frown creased her face. "I feel bad not being able to remember any of you."

"Don't worry about it," Throttle told her. "You just concentrate on healing up. The rest will follow."

The nurse, who had been doing something near the window, suddenly turned around and came over to the bed. "I have work I need to do down the hall, but if you need anything, just give a buzz, okay?"

Charley nodded and thanked her, and the nurse left the room, her tennis shoes thumping softly on the linoleum as she walked away. Throttle waited a second or two, then darted over, closed the door quietly and locked it. Charley was eyeing him with a puzzled frown. "What...?"

Clearing his throat, Throttle hastily returned to the bedside. "This is awkward for all of us, so I'll get straight to it. The names are Throttle, Vinnie, and Modo," he explained, indicating to each of them in turn, "and I know you don't remember us, but for the last couple of years or so you've been the closest friend we have."

He paused and glanced at Vinnie, but the white mouse knew that Throttle was better at explaining things than he was, so he simply gave a nod, wordlessly prodding him to continue. "And being as close to us as you are," Throttle went on hesitantly, "there's something about us that you're well aware of, but since you can't remember..."

"It might come as a surprise," Vinnie finished.

While she was listening, Charley studied each of them intently, her forehead wrinkling slightly in thought. It smoothed again as she suddenly lifted an eyebrow. "You all suffer from male pattern baldness?" she guessed. "That would explain why you never take your helmets off."

Vinnie couldn't help snickering to himself. At least having amnesia hadn't ruined her sense of humor.

"Not exactly," Throttle responded wryly. "We're pretty much hairy from head to toe."

This time the pretty mechanic lifted both eyebrows curiously. After exchanging nervous glances, the three of them steeled themselves and lifted their helmets simultaneously.

Vinnie tried to keep his expression calm as he cringed on the inside, bracing himself for a barrage of blunt objects, or shrieks for help, or maybe cries for an exterminator. But now that he thought back on it, she really hadn't freaked out all that badly the first time she met them...which probably wouldn't make much difference right now, since Charley-girl couldn't remember what a toughie she was.

Several seconds of silence ticked by, during which Charley stared at the three of them blankly. And then, her tone and expression wry, she folded her arms and said, "So, my best friends are giant talking mice? Remembering who I am is going to be interesting."

"You ain't scared?" Modo asked in surprise.

She gave her head a shake. "No. Why would I be scared? You said we were friends, and you obviously care a lot about me." Smiling faintly, she glanced down at the bear still tucked under her arm. "And my fall out in the woods was only an accident, right?"

A flicker of suspicion passed through her eyes. "Right?" she pressed.

"Right," Throttle agreed quickly. "We, uh, got careless, that's all."

" _I_ got careless," Vinnie corrected glumly. "Racing through the woods at dusk was my idea. Gotta be my stupidest idea yet."

Modo made a humming sound, his expression thoughtful. "A tough call, that," he mused.

Scowling, Vinnie elbowed him in the arm--a split second before it dawned on him that he shouldn't do that when he was standing at the gray mouse's right side. Wincing, he rubbed his now sore elbow, while Modo sniggered at him. Charley was watching them, and she rested back against her pillow with an amused smirk. "I bet my life is never boring with you three in it," she remarked.

"Very true," Throttle agreed, chuckling. "Sometimes you wish it was, though."

His expression turning serious, he went on to ask, "So, you really don't remember knowing three biker mice?"

"From Mars?" Vinnie added with a grin.

Frowning slightly, Charley gave her head a shake, her green eyes turning distant. "I'm trying, but so far I've only remembered a handful of things--images mostly, from my childhood, I think."

It made Vinnie's heart sink a little to think that it might be weeks, months, or maybe even years before all the gaping holes in her memory were filled in again, but at the same time he couldn't help but feel hopeful. Even if she couldn't actively remember anything about them, he was sure that, on some level or another, she had to recall the close friendship and connection she had with them in order for her to be so comfortable with the fact that three Martians were standing in her hospital room.

"There's no rush," he told her. "It'll take as long as it needs to take."

Footsteps approached the closed door, and Throttle quickly turned to unlock it as the other two fumbled to put their helmets back on. "It's, uh, best if you don't mention the whole Martian mouse thing to anyone," Vinnie said, as Throttle stepped back from the door and tugged his helmet on. "We're not exactly common knowledge to the rest of this planet's population."

Charley nodded wordlessly, just before the nurse came back into the room. She was followed closely by the doctor, and Vinnie could tell by the way the nurse looked at them while the doctor cheerfully greeted Charley that they weren't casually dropping in to see how she was doing; it was time to give the patient another look over.

Taking the hint, Throttle and Modo edged for the door, while Vinnie turned back to Charley. "Take it easy, sweetheart," he told her softly. "We'll be right outside if you need us."

Charley nodded again. She looked a little tired, like the brief visit had tuckered her out, but even though Vinnie knew he needed to get his butt out of here so she could rest, it was still hard for him to tear himself away. While he was balking he sneaked a glance at the doctor and nurse; they were quietly discussing something and not paying attention to him.

He looked at Charley again, who eyed him curiously in return as he fidgeted for a moment. Then, his ears warming, he carefully lifted her hand and pressed a soft kiss to her fingers. "Feel better soon," he whispered, before hastily exiting the room and joining his bros out in the hall.

* * *

For the next few days, the doctor assisted Charley with what he called 'memory retrieval therapy.' The process involved exposing Charley to various sights, sounds, and even smells that might trigger a flash of memory, and hopefully start filling in the blank slate her mind had become.

There was just one small problem, or so the doctor told them after calling them aside one morning, almost a week after Charley's accident. "One of the most important things for a patient in her condition is a familiar setting. She needs to be surrounded by people, places, and everyday things that are ordinarily in her environment. But since she's from out of town..."

"She's in an unfamiliar setting," Throttle finished.

"Precisely. While I would like to monitor her for another day or so, I feel it's in her best interest to return home now. Her wrist is healing well and she seems to be in a minimal amount of pain, so it should be safe for her to travel."

"It's not that far from here to Chicago," Vinnie noted.

"It's far enough," the doctor said, his tone firm. "Even without being afflicted with amnesia, a concussion is nothing to take lightly. She needs quiet and as little stimulation as possible. That means keeping the music down and the lights low. Avoid anything that might upset her or leave her anxious. And during the drive home, make sure to take it slow. Make frequent stops, and if she suddenly says she's tired and wants to rest, call it a day and continue the trip tomorrow. Take your time."

The three of them nodded solemnly. "We'll take good care of her," Modo promised.

When they got back to Charley's room and told her the news, she was more than ready to go home. She didn't remember what home was like, but she was understandably tired of lying around in a hospital bed and eager for a change of scenery. The doctor approved of her positive attitude and her willingness to continue the program he had designed for her, and as the nurse helped her get ready to leave, he explained that he had sent along her medical information to a hospital in Chicago.

Charley couldn't remember what hospital and doctor's office she normally went to, but after they had her name the hospital here had been able to track them down, and now that they had been alerted to her situation they would be expecting her to call and make an appointment for her next followup.

The three of them had brought in her suitcase from the truck on her first morning in the hospital, so Charley could take a look over a small sample of her own things. Nothing had triggered any major memories so far, but at least now she could change into her own clothes, and she put on clean jeans, a t-shirt and her usual boots before leaving the hospital. Vinnie made sure to stay close, in case she suddenly grew dizzy or something, but her step was strong as she headed across the parking lot...though she walked straight past her pickup and had to be gently guided back.

Mindful of her hand brace, Vinnie took hold of her good hand as he opened the passenger door for her, but instead of letting him help her into the seat she suddenly gave her head a shake. "I've been inside for days," she said. "Couldn't I ride in the back?"

Vinnie didn't see any reason why not--especially since this left him alone with her while his bros rode in the cab. Well, alone except for their bikes, which were all bored due to the lack of activity. They had each taken a handful of rides over the last few days to clear their heads and to get some fresh air, but never for very long, and now their rides were as anxious to get home as the riders.

After Vinnie helped her put together a makeshift cushion out of the rolled up blankets they never got to use, Charley settled back and took out her notepad. The doctor had given it to her when she first started her therapy, coaxing her to write down her thoughts and observations. With her memory gone, she basically had to unearth pieces of her life and put them back together again, and writing things down helped her keep everything straight.

She started writing as the truck pulled out of the lot, though she lifted her eyes frequently to gaze around at the passing scenery. Vinnie kept quiet so not to disturb her, but he stayed close in case she needed anything. Occasionally she looked up and asked him about something they were driving past, but for the most part she quietly wrote on her notepad, flipping to the next page from time to time.

Throttle was at the wheel again, and he stuck to back roads instead of heading to the expressway so he could keep the speed moderate. The air was warm and mellow with summery fragrances, the scenery lush and green, if a little repetitive. Nothing but miles of fields on either side of the road, alternating between freshly sprouted beans and short rows of corn.

It was a quiet drive--a little too quiet for Vinnie's taste. There were only a handful of other vehicles on the road, and the only sounds were the rumble of the old truck engine, the rush of the wind, the faint crinkle of paper as a page from Charley's notepad rustled in the breeze. She looked content, but Vinnie kept fidgeting as the boredom mounted. He glanced absently at what Charley was writing--and found himself scooting closer and peering over her shoulder with interest.

It looked like she had compiled a list of things she had seen and heard and people she had gotten to know during her hospital stay, with comments and random doodles crammed along the edges. She had detailed notes recorded about her doctor and nurse, and it looked like there was a growing commentary about the three of them, too, which went something like this:

Modo (the big gray one)  
-very gentle-natured  
-probably the sweetest one  
-talks about his mama a lot  
-mentions his bike almost as much

Vinnie (the white one)  
-extra chatty  
-likes to joke  
-tends to hover  
-pretty sure he's a flirt

Throttle (the tan one)  
-has a leadership quality to him  
-too cool to ever take his shades off indoors?  
-seems like the most level-headed  
-sexy voice

"Wait--what was that last part?" Vinnie asked dryly, leaning closer and reaching to steady the fluttering page.

Charley gave a start, like she hadn't noticed he was sitting so close, and pulled her notepad away protectively. "Watch it, this is what little there is to my brain."

She inched away and closed the notepad's cover, while Vinnie sat back with a pert frown. Did his bro's voice really drive the ladies that wild? If so, he could just imagine what would happen if _he_ could wield such low, sultry tones. His sex appeal would be unstoppable.

He tried to keep his mouth shut, but he couldn't help grumbling, "Don't get your hopes up; he's taken."

Charley lifted her head, her eyes staring off into the distance. "Taken," she echoed softly, her voice thoughtful.

Giving herself a sudden shake, she looked down at her left hand, still half-hidden in the brace. A look of relief touched her face as she splayed her fingers.

"What's up?" Vinnie wondered curiously, his momentary irritation already forgotten.

Smiling wryly, Charley lifted her hand, displaying the back of it as she wiggled her ring finger. "Just thinking how awkward it would be if it turned out I have a husband waiting for me at home."

"You got that right," Vinnie agreed, with a small smile. "Good thing you're single, huh?"

Charley seemed to think so. She looked relaxed and content, and she let out a quiet yawn as she settled further against her makeshift seat. "Do you want to stop for a while?" Vinnie wondered.

She gave her head a small shake. Her eyes had turned sleepy. "I'm fine. It's relaxing out here."

Smiling faintly, she watched the scenery go by for a while, blinking frequently as her lids grew heavier. With another yawn, she let them close completely and before long had drifted off to sleep. Jostled by the movement of the pickup, her head gradually lolled to the side, until it came to rest against Vinnie's shoulder.

Vinnie watched how the wind was curling her auburn hair around her face for a moment, then carefully edged his arm around her, resting his hand on her waist and gently nudging her a little closer. Charley murmured something and settled against him, a look of peace touching her face.

With a soft smile, Vinnie shifted his hand to her arm and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I don't know how," he murmured, "but we'll get through this. We'll figure out how to get you back to yourself, and you know I'll be there, helping you every step of the way."

After speaking this quiet vow, Vinnie watched Charley's face as she dreamed for a little longer until, lulled by the relaxed pace of the trip, his eyes drooped shut and he joined her in sleep.

* * *

When they pulled up outside of The Last Chance Garage later that afternoon, Charley was the first to hop out. The three of them watched her anxiously, waiting for some spark of remembrance, but her expression remained blank as she looked the shabby building over. "This is where I live?"

"And work," added Vinnie.

"It's your pride and joy," put in Modo.

Charley wrinkled her nose. "If you say so."

Vinnie took her suitcase out of the back, while Throttle hopped out of the cab and walked over to the front door of the garage, a large keyring dangling from his finger. It took him a few minutes to get the door open, since it bore multiple locks and he didn't know which key went with which lock.

"There," he grunted, when the door finally clicked open.

"It's okay," said Vinnie with a yawn, "I only got three back cramps standing here waiting."

Throttle rolled his eyes and elbowed him; Vinnie snickered for a second, then turned to Charley, who was still looking around curiously. She had her notepad tucked under one arm and the smiling bear Modo had given her tucked under the other. "You still have that thing?" he asked teasingly.

"Hey, I love this bear," said Charley, grinning as she gave the plush toy a hug. "In a way he kind of reminds me of the guy who gave him to me."

Modo reddened slightly and glanced away bashfully, while the other two chortled at his expense. Still chuckling, Throttle pushed the door open wider, while Vinnie put a hand on Charley's arm and ushered her inside. They all fell quiet as Charley paused and gazed around her, taking in the sight of the dusty concrete floor, the scattered tools, the workbenches, the old cardboard boxes crammed with parts, the stacks of rubber tires.

While Charley studied everything, they each took a moment to tug their helmets off. Grunting, Vinnie rubbed the back of his head; he had kept his helmet on so much over the last few days, he was pretty sure he was in danger of getting a bald spot. He could practically hear his ears and antennas sighing in relief, and he smoothed his hands over them for a moment before returning his attention to Charley.

"Any bells goin' off?" wondered Modo.

She gave her head a shake, her forehead wrinkling a little. "Not yet."

Withholding a disappointed sigh, Vinnie glanced absently around with her--and then his gaze fell on something lying on the floor, crumpled into a tight ball near his foot. It was only a stained, discarded rag, and he looked away again in disinterest...but then something occurred to him.

He'd heard that the strongest trigger for memory was smells, and the rag reeked like motor grease and oil. He bent to scoop it up, then casually held it out to Charley. "Anything familiar about this?"

Charley grimaced and pulled back with a cough. "No," she muttered, waving a hand in front of her nose, "but it stinks. Get it away."

Taking another step back, she looked everything over again, face lining with concentration. "What did you say I do for a living?" she asked.

"You're a mechanic," Throttle told her.

"Best mechanic that ever lived," Vinnie added, as Throttle pressed a screwdriver into her hand.

Charley looked at it blankly. "Really?"

She gave the slender object a twirl--a move she had made countless times while repairing something--flipping it back across her fingers. It rolled clear over the back of her hand and landed on the floor with a clatter. "I'll, um, take your word for it."

Modo gave her shoulder a gentle pat. "Just take it easy, Charley-ma'am," he told her. "It'll come back to you when it's time for it to come back."

Charley gave a small nod of agreement, though she looked a little unhappy. She also looked sleepy again, which prompted Throttle to spin the keyring on his finger and say, "We'll give you a quick tour of the rest of the place, and then I think it's time for a break."

The door leading to Charley's living quarters only had one lock, but Throttle still fumbled with key after key. "This again?" Vinnie asked dryly, as the tan mouse jabbed with another set of dented teeth and muttered under his breath when the lock refused to give.

"It's not like any of them are marked," Throttle snapped. "How the heck does Charley-girl remember all--"

He stopped himself, flushing until his ears turned pink. "Never mind," he mumbled.

He flipped to the next key, but Vinnie had had enough. "Give me that," he ordered.

Scowling, Throttle planted a hand in his face as Vinnie reached to snatch up the keyring. "I think I can handle opening a door by myself, Vincent," he grumbled.

"Maybe so, but whether or not you can do it before next Christmas is another story."

Grunting, he wrestled Throttle's hand away from his face and reached for the keyring again, but Throttle shoved him back with his shoulder. "Your favorite method for opening a door involves kicking it down," he pointed out.

"True, but I wasn't going to this time. Charley-girl'd kill me."

"You could always blast it," Modo suggested.

Vinnie snorted. "Yeah--and maybe a spark from that would set all the oil around here on fire. Or maybe ignite some gasoline and blow the whole place up."

"I was kiddin'. Now gimme that."

Without waiting for a response, the towering mouse reached over, blithely plucked the keyring from Throttle's fingers and thrust a gold-colored key into the lock. It gave with a loud click.

"How'd you find it so fast?" Throttle wanted to know.

"You compared the shape of the teeth to the lock?" Vinnie guessed.

"Nope. It was the last one."

"Figures."

Sighing, Vinnie looked over his shoulder at Charley, expecting her to be rolling her eyes with boredom by now. Instead, she had her mouth pressed to the top of her bear's head, obscuring half of her face behind blue ears as her eyes danced and her shoulders twitched with muffled giggles.

Vinnie clucked his tongue. "You see that? She's laughing at us."

"They do say it's the best medicine," Modo remarked casually.

Grinning, Vinnie reached out and took her hand. "Come on, Charley-girl," he coaxed. "Home sweet home at last."

The apartment that connected to the garage was more than a little modest. The door they'd been wrestling with opened into a short hallway, with a door at one end leading into a closet and a stairway leading upstairs at the other end. Roughly in the middle, across and a little to the left, there was an open doorway that led into the small kitchen.

Charley stepped inside slowly, her eyes drifting over everything. They trailed over the coat hooks by the door, the narrow table and shoe rack underneath them. "Anything look familiar?" Vinnie asked hopefully.

Charley frowned uncertainly, her forehead puckering a little. "Not exactly, but...it kind of _feels_ familiar. I can't remember the layout, but something about being here makes me feel comfortable."

That was a start, Vinnie felt. With a smile, he guided her up the stairs and opened the door at the top of the landing. "And this," he said, with a grand sweep of his hand, "is your room. Don't ask me where anything is, because you'd have probably beat me over the head with a wrench if I ever snooped in here."

He stepped back, and Charley moved past him and went inside, leaving her bear and notepad on the bed before drifting around the perimeter of the small, square room. Her fingers trailed over the various surfaces, which had grown a little dusty in her absence, then reached over to pull the sliding closet door open. As she ran a hand over a row of shirts, making their hangers rattle, her eyebrows knitted together. Vinnie could almost hear her thinking 'are these really mine?'

He suddenly felt awkward, watching her while she reacquainted herself with her own things, and he cleared his throat as he took another step back. "I'm going to go start on lunch. Hot dogs okay?"

Charley looked up from a blouse she'd been examining. "Do I eat hot dogs?" she wondered, sounding doubtful.

"You sure do when we're around."

Vinnie hoped that she didn't ask what she liked to eat when they weren't around, because he wasn't sure he knew, since he had never really paid attention. Fortunately, she gave an absent nod and turned back to the closet. He lingered in the doorway a moment more, then scurried back downstairs and into the kitchen, where he discovered his bros had also decided it was lunchtime and already had water heating on the stove.

Laser-fried dogs tasted best...but they all probably figured they should wait until Charley-girl had fully recovered from her head injury before they attempted something like that in her tiny kitchen.

"What does Charley-ma'am like on her hot dogs?" asked Modo, as he poked his head in the fridge.

Vinnie stared blankly off into space for a moment. "Ummm, mustard, I think."

Throttle was dumping a package of hot dogs into the boiling water. "I thought she liked ketchup," he commented.

"I'm pretty sure she likes relish," mused Modo, drumming his fingers on the refrigerator door.

Matching blank looks crossed their faces; Vinnie gave his head a shake and sighed. "Some best friends we are."

Charley-girl was counting on them to help her piece together who she was, and yet they were having trouble thinking of something as simple as her favorite food topping. Come to think of it, he didn't know if he knew any of her other favorite things, though he was pretty sure her favorite color was red...or maybe that was just wishful thinking since it happened to be _his_ favorite color. With another sigh, Vinnie dropped into a seat at the small kitchen table and propped his chin in his hands glumly. "It's official. We suck at this whole memory retrieval thing."

"Take it easy, bro," Modo told him, pulling three bottles of root beer out of the fridge and closing the door with his tail. "We only just got her home. I say we take a break for the rest of the day and start working on cracking open her memory banks tomorrow."

"So long as that goes quicker than opening the front door," said Vinnie.

Smirking, Modo passed him a root beer, while Throttle muttered something under his breath. Vinnie popped the bottle open with a snicker and sat back in his seat as he started chugging the sweet, fizzing liquid. Over the sound of his own noisy gulps his keen ears picked up the sound of soft footsteps out in the hallway, and he twisted around in his seat as Charley came into the kitchen.

He nearly started choking on his mouthful of root beer.

It seemed that while Charley was poking around in her closet, she decided to change clothes. Only instead of putting on something similar to what she usually wore, she was wearing a pale yellow dress. It had snug cap sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, and the knee-length skirt fluttered in a breezy, flirty kind of way as she padded barefoot across the room.

Over by the stove he heard someone make a phony coughing sound and whisper something, but he wasn't interested in tearing his eyes away to see what his bros were up to. Charley glanced at him, then looked over his head, her expression curious. "Something wrong?"

"No," said Throttle, after a lengthy pause. "You look, um...nice. And very..."

"Different," Modo supplied, a note of embarrassment in his voice.

Charley looked down at herself, smoothing her hands over the front of her skirt. "Don't I usually dress like this?" she wondered.

"Not exactly," Throttle told her, while Vinnie continued to gawk quietly. It was definitely a different look for her...but he definitely wasn't complaining. Though he was starting to feel a little warm.

"It's a little delicate for your line of work," Throttle went on.

"Where've you been hiding something like that, anyway?" Vinnie wanted to know.

"I found it buried at the back of my closet," Charley explained. "It's warm today and I thought it'd be more comfortable than all those thick shirts."

She flashed a smile, apparently unaware of the effect she was having on him, before heading over to the stove. Vinnie absently took a cold swig of root beer while he watched her look over the boiling hot dogs, then stood on her toes as she reached up to open a cabinet. She peered inside with a frown. "Okay, where do I keep the plates around here?"

Modo stepped in to help, while Vinnie, his eyes still following the auburn-haired vision, started to take another sip of root beer--and then something latched onto his ear and yanked until his head jerked to the side, neck stretched parallel to the floor. "Ouch! What gives?" he complained, wincing.

The grip on his ear tightened. "Modo and I just had a little talk," Throttle told him, his voice low--and a little dangerous.

"When did you have time for that?" Vinnie asked caustically.

"While you were busy drooling. Now, we're not suggesting that you'd actually stoop to taking advantage of a situation involving a woman with amnesia and therefore obviously going through a great deal of confusion..."

Throttle paused and leaned closer, his breath hot as it brushed Vinnie's nose, making it twitch. "But if you were to, say, start subtly hinting, nudging, prodding, or blatantly dropping suggestions that the two of you are anything other than the friends that you are...Modo and I are going to take it as an open invitation to skin you alive and hang you with your tail."

He let go and straightened, and Vinnie rubbed his throbbing ear with a hard scowl. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. I _do_ have a little self-control, you know."

"I sure hope so. For both your sakes."

Throttle went back to preparing lunch, while Vinnie sat back and grumbled to himself. Go where he didn't belong just because Charley-girl couldn't remember that he didn't belong there? Even he wasn't _that_ brazen. No, he was only going to keep on being the same friend to her that he had always been, and as he tried to help her get her memory back in the days to come, he'd no doubt that he'd tell her all about the kind of fun they'd had together ever since they first met. All the playful arguments, the bantering, the laughs, the close calls, the triumphant victories...

Just thinking about it made him smile to himself, something warm and familiar creeping into his heart. Something that made him look over at Charley again as a sinking kind of feeling slowly came over him. Don't go where you don't belong, he repeated to himself. Don't drop any hints. Don't suggest or act in any way like you are, ever have been or ever will be anything other than friends.

That's right, he realized with a quiet groan, he had to pass up what would probably be the only opportunity he would ever have to step outside the friend zone with little to no risk of getting socked for it. Being a self-sacrificing hero really blew sometimes.

He just hoped that Charley-girl got her memory back quickly. Because if that dress was just the start of how she planned to change her wardrobe for the time being, then he was afraid to see just how much more tempting of a sight she was going to be tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

After lunch, Charley decided to head upstairs for a nap. Since the apartment wasn't really big enough to include any sort of recreational area, the three of them headed through the garage and into a room in the back, where visitors or waiting customers could relax on one of the sofas, grab a root beer from the mini fridge, watch the tired-looking TV, or even play a game of pool on the table Charley had gotten a bargain on at a flea market.

Throttle and Modo parked themselves on one of the long sofas, while Vinnie slumped into an easy chair, elbows propped on his knees and chin in his hands. "I think we should head out for a while," Throttle commented, after a short silence. "Take a ride around the city and make sure nothing funny is going on."

And if there was, Vinnie thought, they would have to make sure that Charley didn't get wind of it. Though it _would_ feel strange riding into battle and blowing things up without her. In fact, he could think of at least a dozen situations they probably wouldn't have gotten out of if it hadn't been for her. No doubt about it; going back to strictly being a threesome was going to feel more than a little weird.

Vinnie frowned to himself as he thought about leaving Charley behind while the three of them rode away to enjoy a little wanton destruction--and sat up straight as something occurred to him. "One of us should stay here with her."

Both his bros looked at him with puzzled frowns, so he hurried to explain. "I mean, she could wake up while we're gone. She might get scared when she figures out she's been left alone."

He almost expected them to accuse him of looking for an excuse to be alone with her, but instead Modo furrowed his brow and said, "He's got a point. I've heard stories about folks gettin' confused after a head injury and doin' strange things."

"I've heard that too," said Throttle. "Like wandering off in a daze when no one is looking and getting lost--or hurt."

Vinnie thought this conversation was going to lead to one of them deciding to stay while the other dragged him off to make the rounds in the city, but in the end they surprised him by riding away from the garage without him. Probably testing to see how he would behave while they were gone, he realized sourly. Well, he'd prove just how much self-control he really had by not even thinking about tiptoeing upstairs and peeking in on Charley.

Okay, he thought about it--repeatedly--but only because he wanted to check to make sure she was all right. But he forced his feet to stay on the ground floor, and he roamed the garage in boredom for the next few hours. He thought about turning on the radio to fill in the silence, but he didn't like playing music at any volume less than blaring and he didn't want to accidentally wake Charley. Same went for the TV. He messed around with the pool table for a while but it was no fun by himself, and the magazines lying around were all out of date.

The lack of noise and activity eventually had him swallowing huge yawns and considering taking a nap himself--and then he thought of something that had him scurrying outside to Charley's truck. When his bros finally came back he was in the middle of tossing their unused camping blankets and pillows onto the sofas--though there were only two full-sized ones, which left someone with the smaller loveseat. Vinnie had a feeling he knew what he was going to end up with.

"Whatcha doin'?" Modo wondered.

"If it's best for us to stick around and keep an eye on Charley-girl, I figured we should sleep here for the time being."

"Sounds like a plan," the gray mouse said with a yawn, dropping back on the largest sofa and folding his arms beneath his head.

"Anything going on out there?" asked Vinnie.

"Nah, everything's still quiet," Throttle said as he kicked back on the other sofa and popped open a root beer. "How's Charley?"

"She never came back down, so she's probably still asleep."

And she went on sleeping until it was almost dinnertime, leaving them with a very quiet, very boring afternoon to waste, during which Vinnie paced so much his bros eventually grew so fed up with him they practically threw him bodily out the door as they ordered him to go take a ride.

Charley reappeared around the same time he got back, though she didn't have much of an appetite tonight and munched on a salad while the three of them gorged themselves on more hot dogs. Afterward Charley excused herself to go to bed early, so they figured they might as well hit the sack too, once they finished cleaning up the kitchen. One failed attempt to work the dishwasher and one hastily scrawled note reminding them to discreetly call a repairman later, they decided to hand wash the dishes before crashing in the back of the garage for the night.

Vinnie woke up uncharacteristically early the next morning, sitting up to the sound of his bros rattling the walls with their snores while his mind busily filled with ideas that might help jog Charley-girl's memory. There were mementos lying all over the garage and her apartment--little things saved from their many victories and excursions around the city. He quickly gathered a collection of items and left them on the kitchen table, then turned to the stove and started on breakfast.

Charley came into the kitchen a half hour or so later, while he was busy swatting smoke away from the alarm blaring at the ceiling. "Morning," he greeted sheepishly between coughs. "I, uh, hope charcoal-flavored eggs are okay."

After she hastily tugged open the window above the sink, Charley waved her hand in front of her nose as she surveyed the mess he'd made. "I think I'll pass, if you don't mind," she said, as she began picking bits of eggshell off the counter. "Could you grab that waffle iron from up on the fridge?"

"Did you remember it was up there?" Vinnie wondered hopefully, as he stretched to pull it down.

"No," Charley responded, with a small sigh. "I noticed it there yesterday."

She finished cleaning the counter, then handed Vinnie a damp dishrag, clearly expecting him to start scrubbing the blackened lumps of charred egg that were splattered all over the stove. She started working on the waffle batter while he scoured the stove top, discreetly taking the opportunity to do what he'd managed not to since she first walked into the kitchen; check her out from the neck down.

To his relief, instead of a dress that practically begged out loud for you reach over and find out for yourself if she felt as soft as she looked, she was wearing a pair of jeans and a silk blouse. Though the jeans were a little snugger than the kind she usually wore, and she'd rolled the cuffs up a few times, exposing her ankles and bare feet. Vinnie found himself staring at her toes, because if he didn't know any better he would swear her toenails bore a faint sheen that suggested they were sporting a coat or two of clear nail polish.

Couldn't be, he thought, as he trailed his eyes up to the teal-colored blouse. It had a loose fit and a modest neckline, and the short sleeves bore a faint ripple that fluttered as she moved. Crazily, he found himself comparing them to a pair of large flower petals draped on her shoulders.

Giving himself a shake, he returned his attention to the stove, though he couldn't help glancing at her frequently as she stirred the thickening batter. "What part of your closet did you find _that_?" he asked, indicating to the blouse.

"In a box marked Goodwill."

She started dribbling batter onto the hot waffle iron just as Throttle and Modo came into the room, both of them yawning loudly. "Phew," exclaimed Throttle, nose twitching, "I thought I smelled Vinnie's cooking."

Rolling his eyes, Vinnie tossed another dishrag at him. "Help me clean this up and the smell'll be gone faster."

Snickering, Modo volunteered to set the table. "I'm surprised the smoke alarm didn't bring you guys in here sooner," Charley commented with a smirk.

"We were taking turns in the shower," Throttle remarked. He paused and looked the stove top over for a moment, then looked down at the dishrag in his hand. Frowning, he put it down and started digging in a nearby drawer. "Is there a chisel around here?"

Looking surprised, Charley asked, "There's a shower? All I could find was the bathtub."

"It's in the back of the garage," Modo explained. "Just off the rec room. It used to be just a regular bathroom, but you had a shower installed years ago for when you need to wash up quickly after spendin' the day gettin' your work all over you."

"And since your private bathroom upstairs is off-limits," Vinnie added with a grin, "we use the one in the garage when we drop by."

Brow furrowed, Charley turned back to her waffle-making, but Vinnie could guess what she was thinking by the unhappy frown on her face. It had to be frustrating for her not to be able to remember where anything in her own home was. Fortunately they could help her out with pretty much everything down here, though the upstairs bathroom was as mysterious to them as her bedroom. Vinnie knew that the door for it was right next to the bedroom closet, but he had never been inside.

And absently picturing what it might look like was a bad idea, because his wandering thoughts quickly formed a vision of the bathtub--and Charley-girl taking a long soak in it. Which was something she had obviously done before coming down this morning, judging by how good she smelled right now. Not that she hadn't smelled good yesterday, but...after being in the hospital for so long, she had started to smell a little like one.

Scrubbing at a crusty burner with unnecessary force, he tried hard _not_ to picture Charley-girl relaxing in a sea of fluffy white bubbles, her hair coiled up to keep it dry while she ran a bar of soap over her dewy skin, probably releasing a little sigh of contentment as she smoothed it down the curve of her neck, across her gorgeous shoulders...

"Hey," Modo suddenly said loudly.

Vinnie almost jumped clear out of his pants. "What?" he cried, ears burning.

He turned to see everyone staring at him with blank, puzzled expressions. "Just wonderin' what all this stuff on the table is," Modo told him dryly.

"Oh." Vinnie cleared his throat and prayed that the redness in his cheeks wasn't visible...which was highly unlikely when you had fur as white as his. "Just some things I thought might help Charley. Y'know, some visual prompts."

He'd grabbed a little of everything; her favorite tools, notes of thanks they had gotten from various citizens they had rescued, and of course they each had a pile of souvenirs they had nabbed from Limburger and his goons. He could tell by their looks of amusement and fond remembrance that his bros recognized everything, and as they all sat down with a plateful of waffles they started recounting the stories each item carried.

Charley listened quietly throughout breakfast, flickers of surprise and disbelief crossing her face from time to time. "Why do we keep bothering this guy again?" she asked after they finished describing their latest victory--right before they left for their little 'vacation.'

"Because he's alien scum," said Vinnie, licking maple syrup off his fingers.

"Alien? Like you?" Charley wondered uncertainly.

"Not even remotely," grumbled Modo. "He's Plutarkian stink-fish."

Shuddering suddenly, Charley stood from the table and carried her empty plate to the sink. "Well, he sounds scary."

Vinnie nearly burst out laughing. "Scary?" he echoed. "I can think of a lot of names to describe ol' cheese breath, but scary ain't one of 'em."

"Just the same, leave me behind next time you need to go tip his tower over, okay?"

* * *

Once breakfast was finished and the kitchen was finally clean again, the three of them couldn't stand it a second longer. Bidding Charley a brief goodbye and promising that they wouldn't be far away, they all but ran from the apartment and through the garage, grabbing the radio on their way out the door. In the small parking lot, they cranked up the volume until the garage's windows threatened to bow inward, and Vinnie was pretty sure they all released happy sighs as the tension built up from having to stay quiet for so long was finally released.

They spent the next hour or so jamming to the music, polishing up and fine-tuning their bikes, and basically acting as rowdy as they pleased. That is until somebody suddenly turned the radio down. They all looked up with sheepish grins, expecting to see Charley with a pillow pressed to her ears, but instead it was a guy with a shaggy beard and a bike that looked like it had seen better days.

"The garage is closed right now," Throttle called, pointing to the 'on vacation' sign still in the window.

"But I'm just passing through and this is the only place for miles," the tired-looking biker said unhappily.

The three of them exchanged glances. It seemed a shame to turn away a fellow biker in need. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt if we took a quick look," Modo decided thoughtfully.

Throttle was already hurrying to grab Charley's spare tool box, and before long the trio of bikers--two mice and one human--were bent over a bike that had clearly seen many years of love. They were so engrossed they didn't notice Vinnie edging toward the garage door. "If nobody needs me right now..."

No one responded, and so, grinning, he turned and scurried inside. He found Charley sitting on the loveseat in the back room, flipping through an old photo album. She was absorbed in the images and the faded messages written around them, and from time to time she reached for her notepad and wrote something before turning her attention back to the album. Vinnie decided not to bother her and stealthily grabbed a root beer from the mini fridge before heading back out of the room.

Out front a motor fired up, signaling that his bros' handiwork had been a success. The biker rode away, and a moment later another engine chugged up, though it drove on a second later. "Mail's here," Throttle called as he breezed in.

He set a mound of envelopes and magazines down on a table and went back outside, and a minute later the radio cranked up again. Charley came over and started sifting through the mail curiously, while Vinnie sat down and relaxed in a chair next to the table. "Anything here from anyone I know?" she wondered, her eyes scanning the return addresses.

Not likely, Vinnie thought as he eyed the collection of envelopes. Everything looked like bills and junk mail. But maybe contacting some of her friends and explaining what had happened might help stir up recognition, if they stopped by. Though if their three faces hadn't incited much of a reaction, he kind of doubted anyone else's would have a whole lot more luck.

While he was mulling this over, Charley started flipping through the stack of magazines. A puzzled frown touched her face. "Why do I have subscriptions to...Bass Fishing Quarterly? Motorcycle Addicts Unlimited? And why the heck would I be getting Bikes&Babes?"

Vinnie hastily put his root beer down and grabbed the stack from her--before she flipped any farther. "Those are ours--well, theirs," he stammered, flushing. "We don't have a home address, so you hold on to our mail for us. I mean, them."

He casually tossed the pile of magazines under the table and smiled innocently. Charley gave him a funny look, but she slowly turned and headed back to her photo album in the other room. Whistling nonchalantly, Vinnie absently drummed his hands on his lap as he waited a minute or two, then looked over to make sure Charley wasn't coming back before reaching down and snatching up a magazine from the middle of the stack.

Nothing wrong with admiring beautiful girls dressed in skimpy, skin-tight leather and posed provocatively on bikes with glossy finishes and gleaming chrome, he told himself as he leaned his chair back a little and flipped open the magazine with a little murmur of appreciation. Especially when the girl in the next room was strictly off-limits. Although now that he thought about it, the girls who smiled their seductive, tantalizing smiles at him from the pages were every bit as unobtainable. Which was what made them safe, he reasoned. After all, it wasn't like he'd ever had a real girl for longer than five minutes.

With a cold chill he realized that that was completely true. Releasing a whimpering groan, he let his hands drop and his head fall back. Sometimes he felt the nagging worry that, deep down, the baddest mamma-jammer in the universe was just a tiny bit pathetic. Just a teeny tiny bit, mind you.

Sighing, he clacked his teeth together and stared gloomily up at the ceiling--and then a terrified shriek cut through the air. Vinnie was so startled he ended up tipping the chair back until it landed on the floor--along with his head, sending a splash of stars dancing in his brain.

Grunting and shaking his head to clear it, he was up in an instant and racing into the back room. He burst through the door with a flying leap, hitting the ground at a crouch and rolling behind one of the sofas. He popped up a second later, blaster drawn and battle face on.

Only as he did a quick scan of the room, he didn't see anything that needed battling. All he saw was Charley--standing on her toes on the loveseat, her notepad clutched tightly to her chest. She shrank back as far as she could, and as Vinnie got up with a puzzled frown, she pointed to a spot on the floor with a whimper. "There," she said weakly.

Vinnie looked...though it took him a minute to identify the object of her distress. He scratched his head and made a face. "So?" he said. "It's a spider."

Charley shuddered. "I know," she moaned. "Please get rid of it."

Vinnie looked at her blankly, while Charley lifted one of her feet and pressed it behind her leg, like she was worried the lazy arachnid was going to leap up onto the cushions and latch onto her bare toes. Vinnie wrinkled his nose for a moment, then moved around to the front of the sofa. "Charley-girl, I know you don't remember what kind of girl you are, so here...let me give you a visual demonstration."

And he proceeded to mimic the pretty mechanic humming to herself while she expertly repaired something. In the middle of work he paused, looking down like he'd just spotted something on the floor, then stomped the floor hard and dug in his heel for good measure. Humming again, he went back to his imaginary repair job.

His act finished, he folded his arms and looked over at Charley, who was still cowering on the loveseat. "You see?" he said.

Her eyes blinked at him, then darted to the spider, who hadn't moved a leg. "My eyes saw, but I don't think the rest of me believed you."

"Well, we'll keep working on it. In the meantime," he went on, letting his voice turn ominous as he raised his boot, "you might want to look away if you're feeling squeamish."

"Wait!"

Vinnie jerked back in surprise and almost wound up falling backwards for the second time that morning. "Now what?" he demanded after regaining his balance.

"Don't kill it," Charley pleaded. "Just take it outside, okay?"

Vinnie gave her a blank look, but her expression was completely serious as she sank to a cushion and pulled her knees to her chest. "You sure?" he asked dryly. "It knows where you live. You never know...it might come back looking for revenge."

Charley let out a groan and half-hid her face behind her notepad. "Stop teasing me and take it outside already," she begged.

Though he could scarcely believe she really wanted him to do this, Vinnie did what he was told, scooping the eight-legged intruder up in his gloved hand and carrying it outside, where he dumped it in the alley before heading out front again. Cranking the music up a little more, he and his bros stayed outside until it was time for lunch.

"More hot dogs?" Throttle wondered as he opened the fridge.

"You even gotta ask?" said Modo.

"It was a rhetorical question, bro."

"Can't say I really like the boiling method, though," Vinnie commented.

"You have a point," Throttle agreed, taking out a fresh pack of hot dogs. "Just doesn't have that rich, smoky flavor."

"Charley always keeps a grill around," Modo reminded him eagerly.

Speaking of whom, Charley-girl wasn't in sight, but Vinnie could hear movement upstairs. Throttle was tapping his chin thoughtfully, his gaze fixed on the clean stove. Instead of a more modern model with electric burners, it was a classic gas range. "I've got an idea," said Throttle, sounding pleased with himself as he turned one of the burners on, making the blue flame ignite with a quiet _whoosh_.

Vinnie had already figured out what was on his mind and was hunting for a set of metal skewers. He soon found some and passed them to Throttle, who stabbed a hot dog and held it over the open flame. Before long they had an assembly line going; Vinnie pulled hot dogs out of the package, Throttle cooked them, and Modo stacked the finished dogs on a plate. Vinnie leaned over to swipe one and discovered that they cooked up nice and tasty...though they were splattering grease all over the place.

"We should probably clean this up before Charley comes down," he noted, before shoving the rest of the hot dog into his mouth.

"Just as soon as we're done," said Throttle, as he skewered the last hot dog.

While he held it over the burner, Vinnie turned to find clean plates--just as Throttle held the roasting dog a little too close. The skin wrinkled and burst into flame. "Oops."

Modo reached over and switched the burner off, while Throttle hastily held the mini fireball at arm's length and tried to wave it out. "Watch it," Vinnie cried.

Too late; a tiny tongue of flame leaped from the blackened lump of hot dog and happily ignited the edge of the curtain hanging over the window above the sink. The three of them stared in stunned silence as the tiny flame grew in a heartbeat, and in a matter of seconds the flimsy material was aflame clear to the wooden curtain rod.

Vinnie elbowed Throttle. "Do something!"

Throttle hastily dropped the flaming skewer still in his hand. It bounced off Vinnie's leg before hitting the floor, burning a hole straight through his jeans. " _Not_ what I had in mind."

While Vinnie rubbed his stinging leg and hoped that his fur hadn't been singed, Throttle had a brainstorm and grabbed the hose next to the faucet used for rinsing dishes and started spraying...but all that seemed to do was leave spots on the window. Finally, with a grumbling sigh, Modo reached up with his non-furry hand and pulled the whole sorry mess down into the sink. A minute or two later they had the sink filled, and they mutely stared down at the charred, soggy strip of fabric that was all that was left of the curtain hanging from the broken rod, looking half-drowned as it sagged farther into the water--and then the smoke alarm went off.

Vinnie cringed as the painful trilling echoed in his ears, wearing down the last of his frazzled nerves. With a grumble, he fumbled for his blaster, and a second later the alarm let out an unhappy squeak before falling silent. Throttle released a huff of air. "Next time, just take the batteries out."

Vinnie opened his mouth to retort, but just then a door creaked open upstairs. "Anything wrong down there?"

"Nothing," they yelled in unison.

Vinnie was pretty sure Charley didn't buy that for a second...but she wisely decided not to come down and check on them.

* * *

A little while later, Vinnie mounted the stairs to Charley's room and swept through her open bedroom doorway. "Lunch is served," he announced grandly, setting the tray he was carrying down on her dresser. Not knowing what she'd be in the mood for today, he'd prepared her a pyramid of hot dogs, a freshly-opened can of root beer, a variety of fruit, a cheeseless sandwich, and he'd tossed in a packet of soup crackers he'd found for good measure.

Charley had been facing the mirror hanging on the wall by the closet, but she turned and set the shirt she was holding down on the nearby bed as she faced him with a bright smile. She looked happy to see him, Vinnie was pleased to notice. He also noticed that it looked like she had laid out over half her wardrobe on her bed. "Whatcha doing?" he wondered, as he eyed the mound of clothes.

"Just sorting through the things I can alter," Charley responded. She lifted a pair of shorts from the pile, looked them over for a moment, then set them down again, lips pursed.

"Alter?" Vinnie repeated, not understanding.

She smiled at him again. "You know...tuck in a waistline here, shorten a sleeve there, maybe add a strip of lace or two. A lot of this stuff has seen better days."

As she spoke, she pulled out a cloth measuring tape, but it still took Vinnie another second or two to figure out what she was saying. "I didn't know you knew how to sew," he commented in surprise.

"I didn't either. But while I was looking at my old year books a while ago I remembered that I took home ec back in high school. It's a little fuzzy, but I'm sure I can get the hang of it again."

Vinnie thought about what she was suggesting for a moment, and though he knew he wouldn't complain if she made over her entire wardrobe to match how she had looked over the last day or so, he still thought he should advise her against it. "Maybe you shouldn't be so hasty," he told her, as she picked up one of her usual work shirts and sized it against herself. Her nose wrinkled in distaste.

"Why not?" she wondered, as she turned to survey herself in the mirror.

"Well, because you'll probably be pretty annoyed with yourself, once your memory comes back and you see what you've done to your clothes," he pointed out with a grin.

Scoffing quietly, Charley turned and tossed the shirt aside. "Might do me some good," she muttered. "From the look of things, I've been dressing a little too manly for much too long."

"Have not," Vinnie protested in surprise. "Not to me."

She gave him a sidelong glance. "No? You're the one who keeps tacking the word 'girl' to my name. Like if you didn't, you'd forget what gender I am."

"Not true at all," Vinnie insisted. "You actually don't like being called your full name all that much."

"Why not?" Charley asked seriously. "Charlene is such a pretty name."

Vinnie had never really thought about it before. He just knew that she'd told him her name was Charley before he found out it was short for Charlene. "Because it doesn't really suit you, I guess," he finally said.

Charley folded her arms with a look of triumph. "Because I'm not girly enough to pull it off," she concluded.

Pulling a face, Vinnie looked at the smug smile she was giving him and tried to figure out how he could win this little exchange. After thinking for a minute, he shrugged and smirked. "Well, if you don't want me to call you Charley-girl anymore, I could always just call you sweetheart."

Instead of rolling her eyes at him, Charley bit her lip and turned away with a frisky giggle. "You say that like I would mind."

Vinnie found himself staring at her stupidly. The Charley he knew would never even think about giggling like that, and the airy, almost taunting sound seemed more than a little strange coming from her lips. But that didn't mean, especially when paired with the lilting words that had followed, it didn't bring a funny tingling to his ears.

"You're usually not all that thrilled when I do," he mumbled distantly. "You just kind of put up with it...I think."

Charley looked over her shoulder at him, still smiling that teasing, playful smile. "I can see why I would."

Vinnie stared again, feeling a lopsided grin form on his face and a pleasant kind of warmth settle over him. He realized that he probably looked pretty stupid right now, and that he was probably getting a little too happy about this--so he broke the moment by blurting out the first thing that popped into his head.

"Wanna give me that punch in the nose you owe me now?"

Charley laughed and shook her head. "You're crazy, you know that? I could never punch you in the nose," she said as she started folding the pile of clothes on the bed. "Your nose is much too cute."

The lopsided grin returned with a vengeance. "Really?"

Charley-girl had used a lot of adjectives to describe him since he'd known her, but he was pretty sure 'cute' had never been one of them. He was eager to stick around and find out what other words might be in her mind right now...but a sudden sinking in the pit of his stomach had him setting his teeth and taking a step back.

"I'll, uh, leave you to your alterations," he mumbled, before turning and hurrying downstairs.

He retreated to the main room of the garage, where he placed his hands on one of the walls and let his head thump forward against the cool brick with a groan. He was seriously considering leaving town until Charley got her memory back, because even if she didn't mean to, she was making it painfully hard for him to maintain his self-control.

"You can do it," he told himself firmly. "You're tougher than anything, so you can..."

From the apartment, the sound of voices suddenly drifted over to him, and he could tell from their tones that his bros were goofing around. Charley had come downstairs and joined them, laughing and joking along with their antics. It wasn't quite like the frisky giggle she had let out upstairs, but the sound of her voice, so carefree and full of happiness...it heated something inside his heart until it ached.

Pressing his hand to his chest, he let out his breath slowly and shook his head. "You are so screwed."


	4. Chapter 4

"Do you think that maybe, just maybe, I'm the victim of self-sabotage?"

His bros and Charley were still goofing around in the kitchen, their voices and laughter muffled and distant as he reclined on one of the sofas in the back room of the garage, so his sighing question was directed at the nameless image in the magazine he was holding. Not that a picture of a leggy girl perched on the seat of an overly large bike, eyes coy and tongue held between her teeth, had very much to say. Not with words, at least.

With another sigh, Vinnie carelessly tossed the magazine away and draped his arm across his eyes. He really didn't like being left alone in quiet, because when he had nothing but his own mind to keep him company, it had a bad habit of forming thoughts he was probably better off not thinking, and asking questions best left unanswered.

Like why, when he knew full well how annoying it was, did he always flirt so hard and so directly? That kind of in-your-face approach generally got you the opposite reaction of the one you really wanted...and he suddenly found himself wondering--worrying--if that wasn't exactly the reason why he did it.

And why would he need to do that? Not being single anymore was one of the things he wanted the most. But as he asked himself this, a little voice spoke up from somewhere deep inside him and whispered that maybe he did it because it was better to stay cautious. Being alone might be a drag sometimes, but it was safe. If you didn't have anyone then you couldn't lose them.

Being safe meant never being hurt. But since when had he ever been interested in playing things safe? Anything worth having was worth taking a risk for. That was one of the most basic facts of life, he reminded himself as he sat up--just as a shadow filled the nearby doorway. "Vinnie?"

The word was spoken softly, tentatively, but it made his heart soar. That was the first time Charley-girl had said his name since her accident. Getting to his feet with a grin, he said, "Something I can do for you, sweetheart?"

Smiling, she stepped farther into the room, notepad tucked under one arm, a small purse slung over the other, and a pair of canvas sneakers on her feet. She was wearing the brace on her left hand and she absently massaged her palm as she answered. "I have an appointment at the doctor's office in a little while and I was hoping you could take me. I'd drive myself, but I'm not supposed to get behind the wheel until I'm clear of dizzy spells and blackouts."

Go for a ride, just the two of them? He was already poised and ready to bolt out the door--but then he stopped and drooped inwardly as he suddenly remembered his bros' words of warning, not to mention the scene in her bedroom earlier. And what was it he been thinking a minute ago? Something about all but chasing a girl away by flirting too hard? Well, that kind of only worked when the girl in question remembered that being pestered like that bugged the heck out of her.

The thought of missing out on more alone-time with her made his mood drop lower than the soles of his boots, but he knew in his heart that it would be better for them both if he kept his distance. But he didn't want to hurt her feelings by bluntly saying no without giving any real reason, so instead he forced a smile and casually asked, "What are the others up to?"

Charley wrinkled her nose and glanced in the direction of the kitchen. "I'm not sure, actually. They said they have something they need to take care of and shooed me out here."

Probably trying to call and secure an appointment with the dishwasher repairman. Which meant they would probably appreciate it if he got Charley-girl out of the garage for a few hours...in case the lines were extra busy or something. He'd just have to make sure he exercised that self-control he'd told Throttle he had--and that meant _no_ flirting.

Which might make carrying on a conversation with her a little awkward, since flirting covered the majority of how he usually interacted with her. But you can do it, he told himself. You can do this.

Before he knew it the two of them were out in front of the garage. "Have you had any dizzy spells or blackouts?" he wondered, as he made himself comfortable on his bike.

"Not exactly, but I've felt light-headed a couple of times. No point in taking foolish chances, right?"

As she spoke, Charley hopped on behind him and snugged her arms around his torso--a motion she made smoothly and easily and without stopping to think about it first, like it was second nature. She wiggled around for a second before settling against him, comfortable as anything. Vinnie, on the other hand, had to battle the urge to squirm as his temperature abruptly lifted a degree or two.

Because that paper-thin blouse she was wearing? It did absolutely nothing to disguise the pair of curves that pressed into his back as her arms tightened around his chest. Plain as can be, he could make out their perfect shape, feel their warmth and softness--even more so than he would have been able to ordinarily, but she must have forgotten that not wearing a bra while wearing a silk top was a no-no. She might as well have been sitting behind him naked.

He hiccuped strangely and spent the next few seconds trying desperately to get rid of the image this passing thought shoved ruthlessly into his mind. He was still whimpering quietly to himself when Charley suddenly pressed even closer and casually propped her chin on his shoulder. "Need directions?" she asked, her voice playful.

Vinnie cleared his throat and decided to act like that was the reason for his hesitation. Sounding amused, Charley told him the way to the doctor's office; Vinnie wasted no time getting their little trip underway. Before long he was sitting in a small waiting room while Charley went off with a nurse to a room down the hall, where the doctor looked her wrist over and evaluated the state of her memory.

She joined him in the waiting room a little while later, all smiles. "He gave me a smaller brace," she reported, displaying her left hand. "And he said I should be completely healed in about four weeks."

Vinnie smiled as he got up from his seat. "That's great," he told her. "What'd he say about your memory recovery?"

"He thinks the way I keep remembering little things is a good sign. If I keep doing what I've been doing, it should only be a matter of time before I start remembering big things."

And speaking of time...they actually didn't stay at the doctor's office for all that long, but when they finally got back to the garage the sun was sinking in the summer sky. As Vinnie parked his bike, he turned his head and spotted his bros standing outside the front door, like they were waiting. Waiting with their arms folded and matching stern looks on their faces--which gave him the weirdest sense of nostalgia.

That was exactly the look his mother used to give him when she caught him sneaking a snack before dinner.

"And where have you two been all day?" Throttle asked, his suspicion plain.

"Just staying out of your hair," Vinnie responded with a scowl.

With a casual air, Charley hopped down from his bike. "I had a doctor's appointment, so I asked Vinnie to take me," she explained, her tone light. "And then, since we were already out in town anyway, I wanted to take a look around for a while--just in case something jogged my memory."

She flashed the tan mouse a sweet-as-cinnamon-and-sugar smile. "You two seemed busy and I didn't want to bother you."

Throttle actually looked embarrassed for a second. "Oh. Uh, how'd it go at the doc's?"

The pretty mechanic gave a quick report, and then happily launched into a detailed account of everything she and Vinnie had done today. While nothing had triggered anything beyond a vague sense of familiarity, she had greatly enjoyed all the sights they rode by and the places they had visited. Despite their long afternoon, she was brimming with energy, and she excused herself to go explore around the outside of the garage.

Vinnie was still scowling as he joined his bros. "Did you get the dishwasher repaired?" he asked coolly.

Fidgeting, Modo mumbled, "Repairman won't be able to come out till next week."

"I see. And when he does show up, should I keep Charley entertained? Or should I just let the two of you handle everything without me from now on?"

"Hey, we get it," Throttle said quietly. "You're behaving yourself. We know this has to be difficult for you, what with the, um, adjustments to her wardrobe and all."

"Just drop it," Vinnie grumbled, brushing past them. Looking sheepish, his bros followed him inside.

It was already after eight and their stomachs were empty, and this time they decided to skip the kitchen and cook outside. They were still hunting for the grill when Charley scurried into the garage, eyes shining.

"Look what I found," she exclaimed.

Vinnie looked--and let out a yelp as he darted for safety behind a nearby sawhorse. "You keep that thing away from me," he ordered.

Because cradled in her arms was a tiny blue-eyed tabby kitten, with dark peach stripes and a white belly. Charley stared at him, her expression both bemused and amused. "Don't tell me the big, buff Martian mouse is afraid of a harmless little Earth kitty."

Across the room, his bros were snorting on poorly suppressed laughter. "It's not really a matter of fear, Charley-girl," Vinnie muttered. "It's more a matter of not being in the mood to run my clothes through the wash right now."

"She doesn't remember that story," Throttle pointed out, snickering.

And with frequent chortles and guffaws, his bros gleefully plunged into the tale in question, which took place shortly after they first came to Earth. Vinnie had been amused when he first learned about Earth mice and how they were tormented by cats--so amused he had decided it would be funny if he befriended the first cat he came across. Which just so happened to have been an adult tomcat. Who decided he liked Martian mice so much, he'd marked Vinnie's pants as his personal territory.

Vinnie had made a point of avoiding anything feline ever since.

"That's terrible," Charley said, as she nearly doubled-over giggling.

"Stop," Vinnie sighed, "your sympathy is overwhelming."

"Well, you won't have to worry," Charley assured him, as she cuddled the yawning kitten closer. "This is a girl kitty."

With a smile full of affection, she started for the door that led into her apartment. "Are you hungry?" she cooed. "Let's find you something to eat. You're just so cute--I think I'm going to call you Tabitha."

Throttle and Modo started cracking up again...while Vinnie slapped a hand over his eyes with a pained groan. "Tabitha the tabby. Ouch, Charley-girl. Ouch, ouch, and...oh, yeah-- _ouch_."

Charley thrust her nose into the air and breezed out of the room with a 'hmph.' When his bros finally composed themselves, they found the grill and dragged it out back, where the three of them started grilling up hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken legs--anything they could find in the fridge that would barbecue.

The sun finished setting and the light began to fade, so they set camping lanterns around a picnic table before piling plates high with the finished hunks of meat, juicy and steaming, along with toasted buns and a bunch of potatoes they'd wrapped in foil. They'd even gotten ambitious enough to dice up onions, mushrooms and carrots and season them for a little vegetable-kebab.

When they yelled to Charley that everything was ready, she came running out with lips smacking. "With you three around, I must never have to cook," she noted, as she set 'Tabitha' down on a patio chair and grabbed a plate.

The three of them merely exchanged matching smirks and decided not to mention that she generally didn't like them messing around in her kitchen--let alone cooking in there. But until she was back to her old self, they were going to have to fend for themselves in ways they hadn't had to since they first landed here, while at the same time taking care of Charley in ways she probably never needed to be before.

But after all she had done for them and all the things she put up with, Charley deserved it. So what if they would have to hand wash all the dishes for the rest of the week. It could be worse.

* * *

Come bedtime Vinnie succeeded in snagging one of the sofas, and he fluffed his pillow with a triumphant grin before settling down under the blanket...while Modo grumbled as he struggled to make himself comfortable on the loveseat. On the other sofa, Throttle snickered before taking off his specs and closing his eyes with a yawn.

Worn out from his busy day, it wasn't long before Vinnie was asleep. As he was drifting off he thought distantly about how else they could try to coax Charley-girl's memory out of hiding. More fun stories about things the four of them had done together? More rides around the city? His dreams that night were filled with ideas about where tomorrow might take them.

He woke up early the next morning--and not because he _wanted_ to wake up early, but because he slowly became aware of a funny pressure against his throat. As he unwillingly left his dreams and returned to the waking world, he could hear the sound of his bros' heavy snores, so he doubted there was anything threatening in the room. Maybe a cushion had somehow fallen onto his neck.

Or maybe, he thought dryly as he suddenly noticed another sound almost lost beneath the snoring that paired nicely with the faint vibration against his throat, his ability to charm Earth cats worked even in his sleep.

Opening his eyes with a sigh, he reached up to pull 'Tabitha' off his neck and lifted her so he could see her. Hefting her up above his head, he tried to glare in a scolding, 'go sleep somewhere else' kind of way, but the sleepy kitten merely yawned and went on purring, her needle-like claws catching on his glove as she flexed her tiny paws against his palm. His annoyance faded a little, and he had to admit she was kind of cute, but...he was sure glad his bros weren't awake right now.

Someone else was, though he had no idea she was watching him until he heard a muffled giggle somewhere behind his head. His ears started to burn, and he hastily set the kitten down as he sat up and looked over his shoulder. "What are you doing up this early?" he demanded--though he made sure to keep his voice down. No need for his bros to get involved in this.

Because they'd no doubt laugh harder at him than Charley was right now, her eyes dancing above the hand she was pressing over her mouth. Clearing her throat, she moved her hand away and tried to compose herself as she stepped closer to his sofa, though the smile never left her face. "You three have been so good to me, I'm going to make you breakfast today," she explained in a whisper. "How do chocolate pancakes sound?"

"Good," Vinnie responded distractedly. His eyes had left her smiling face and were drifting over her nighttime attire...which was clear evidence that she had ignored his advice about not messing with her wardrobe too much.

Because she had taken one of her work shirts and cut the collar and sleeves off, then snipped the neckline lower so it formed a modest scoop neck. Worn solo, the hem of the shirt hung just low enough to hide her bottom. At least it would as long as she didn't need to bend over for anything. With a shy smile, Charley glanced down at herself and said, "I couldn't find a regular nightgown."

Feeling a little embarrassed that she had noticed his quiet gawking, Vinnie quickly pulled his eyes away from her long, shapely legs and flashed a crooked smile. "Need any help with anything?"

"I can handle it," Charley said confidently, as she came closer and lifted Tabitha from where she had been making herself comfortable on his lap. "I found a cookbook in one of the cabinets."

With her new kitten cradled in her arms, she went back to her apartment while Vinnie stayed where he was, feeling both disappointed and relieved. As much as he liked being around Charley-girl no matter what she was wearing or how she was acting, he really needed to start keeping himself at a safe distance. As he got up off the sofa and stretched his mind went back to what he was thinking about as he fell asleep--ways that might help jog her memory--and then it dawned on him that if he wasn't sure of just how to approach the situation, there was an easy way for him to find out.

His bros woke up a little while later, roused by the sweet smells of chocolate and maple syrup filling the air, and the three of them trooped into the kitchen with mouths watering. Fortunately, Charley-girl had put on some pants in the meantime, so Vinnie was able to keep his mind on his new plan during breakfast. As soon as he was finished, he pushed his chair back with a loud belch and said, "I'm off to the library."

Charley didn't react, but his bros stopped mid-chew and stared at him, their expressions blanker than a power-washed chalkboard. Throttle coughed for a second, choking down his mouthful of pancake, before echoing his last word with a voice loaded with bewilderment. "Library?"

Vinnie rolled his eyes as he stood. "Yeah, you know...it's where they keep books. Lots and lots of books."

"We know," Modo responded, tone dry. "What we can't figure out is what you're goin' to do there."

"What do you _think_ I'm going to do there?" Vinnie demanded wearily. "I'm going to check out a book. A library is bound to have plenty of information about memory loss."

"True," Throttle mused, "but that sounds a little out of your realm of comprehension."

The white mouse scowled in irritation. "What am I, completely illiterate?"

"Not completely. Maybe seventy-two percent?"

He started to snicker at his own joke--only to let out a loud yelp of surprise a second later as Vinnie casually grabbed the bottle of maple syrup and squirted him with it. "Do you have any idea how long it's going to take me to get rid of all this?" Throttle asked sourly, as he gingerly poked at the sticky trails that were now oozing down--and into--the fur on his chest and arms.

"I've an inkling."

Glaring and wielding the bottle ominously, Vinnie looked at Modo, who was grinning unsympathetically and lifting his hands in defeat. While Throttle grumbled to himself and tried to pry his now gooey fingers apart, Vinnie set the bottle down and turned to Charley--who was struggling hard not to laugh. "Mind if I borrow your library card?"

For a moment she looked puzzled, like she wasn't sure if she had one, but she led him out into the hall where she'd left her purse on the table by the door. After digging through her wallet for a minute or so, her expression brightened and she handed him the plain white laminated card.

And then, to his heart's somersaulting surprise, she put her arms around him and gave him a tight hug, resting her head on his chest with a smile. Vinnie swallowed tightly. "What's that for?"

"Just saying thank you," Charley said, her tone light--relaxed. "It's like everything you do is for me in some way."

His heart warming, Vinnie tentatively laid his hand on the back of her head, his fingers lightly brushing her soft hair. "Just doing whatever I can to help you through this," he murmured. "If it was me, you'd do the same thing."

With her cheek still pressed to his chest, she tilted her head to look at him, her green eyes bright as she lifted them. "I'm sure that I would."

* * *

Vinnie wound up spending a lot more time at the library than he thought he would. There were tons of reference books and medical texts about memory loss and head trauma, and at first he sat down and flipped through a few of them, but when he realized just how long looking at all of them was going to take he figured he had better just check them out--and since he didn't know which ones would be the most helpful, he decided he should probably check _all_ of them out.

Finding books with the kind of information he needed was a pain, since he had to sort through the fiction before he found the facts, plus he was forced to roam up and down the rows because every reference to memory loss wasn't kept in the same place. Just how did anyone keep track of all this stuff, anyway?

He spent several hours poking around the many rows of tall shelves, shoving heavy hardbacks aside and tugging out old, dusty texts while muttering out loud to himself the whole time--until finally, with a loud 'shh!' and a scolding about how he was making too much noise for a public library, a scowling librarian came over and helped him find everything he was looking for.

He was pretty sure everyone at the front desk was glad when he finally rode away, toting a cheap plastic bag he worried the entire ride back to the garage would split under the weight of all the hefty volumes. As soon as he got inside he dropped the bag on the nearest table--and found his ears all but squealing in pain as they were suddenly bombarded with the most horrendous of beats that some extremely deranged individuals had the nerve to call music. "What is _that_?" he demanded, cringing.

His bros were standing nearby, looking equally pained--and confused. "I think it's pop," Throttle responded, scratching his head with a wince.

"No," said Modo, nose wrinkled, "I think it's dance."

"Nah, it's pop. The poppiest of pop."

"Dance-pop," Modo insisted.

Vinnie let out a loud moan and covered his ears. "Whatever it is, make it _stop_ ," he whined.

"No fair," Charley called from across the room.

Cringing harder, Vinnie looked and saw that she had the radio clutched protectively in her hands, her expression defiant--and playful. "I've had to put up with that screechy noise you guys keep listening to, so now it's my turn."

"Says you," Vinnie shot back challengingly.

The pretty mechanic merely let out a laugh, then gave a little hop as she quickly turned around and dashed out of the room...while at the same time deliberately cranking the volume up. It was a clear and open invitation for someone to chase after her and make her regret that move, and Vinnie made no hesitation in accepting it. Chuckling despite the grating sound that was still in the air, he bolted after her. "You bring that back," he warned.

Charley giggled in reply. "Make me!"

Vinnie gained on her quickly and soon had her cornered in the rec room, and he would have caught her--if it wasn't for that silly cat of hers, who darted between his feet with a startled yowl as he came tearing through the doorway. He lost his balance and danced on one foot for a second before falling over completely, landing face-first on the loveseat. With another playful giggle, Charley escaped by jumping over the back of it and darting out the door. Determined now, Vinnie hauled himself up and ran after her again.

Following the tune still pumping from the radio, he soon tracked her inside her apartment, where she was hurrying up the stairs to her room--only she had closed the door since the last time she was up here. She let out a yelp and fumbled for the knob, but it was too late; he all but dove forward when he reached the landing and locked his arms around her waist with a triumphant grin. "Gotcha!"

Momentum almost sent them both smacking into the closed door and he quickly shifted his weight back--only to have his heart pop into his mouth as he wound up teetering dangerously on the top step before he managed to straighten himself out again. He let out a quiet breath of relief...and then he noticed just how tightly he was holding on to Charley-girl right now. She didn't seem to mind; twisting around so she could see him, she rested against his chest as she smiled up at him. "You caught me," she noted casually. Her eyes were dancing. "Your heart is pounding."

Vinnie stared dumbly for a few seconds--at least a second too long--before he let out an uneasy laugh and shrugged the teasing words off. "I almost fell backwards down the stairs just now," he responded, equally casual...and hoped his face wasn't as red as it felt.

Charley's smile deepened--and that was when he noticed for the first time just what kind of lyrics were belting out from the radio's speakers right now.

_And everything went from wrong to right_  
_And the stars came out and filled up the sky_  
_The music you were playing really blew my mind_  
_It was love at first sight_

With a choking sound, the white mouse hastily fumbled for the off switch before pulling his arms away and snatching up the radio. "Let this be a lesson to you," he told her lamely as he beat a hasty retreat down the stairs.

He had just reached the door leading back into the garage when Charley-girl suddenly called after him. She spoke softly, and all she said was his name, but her voice stopped him in his tracks and pulled his eyes to her. She was still standing at the top of the stairs, hands clasped and face expectant. "Can you take me for another ride in the city later?"

Like when she asked him to take her to the doctor, Vinnie felt himself hesitate. This was an opportunity to prove once and for all that he had self-control, and this time he had a real excuse not to take her: those books he just brought back weren't going to read themselves. Putting a smile on, he opened his mouth to say that he was busy and she should ask his bros, while he kept his eyes on that look on her face. That expectant, eager--hopeful--look.

"Well, the thing is..."

Charley's eager smile grew into a grin, and...were her eyes actually shining?

Vinnie opened his mouth again to say no--and felt himself deflate like a leaky balloon. "Of course I will. Anything you want, sweetheart."


	5. Chapter 5

The next couple of weeks were pretty repetitive, as far as their activities went. Vinnie spent hours each day by himself in the rec room, stretched out on one of the sofas poring over the books he brought back from the library. His bros left him alone whenever he was engrossed in his research, though he caught them peeking in at him from time to time, clearly in disbelief.

Vinnie had to admit, he was a little shocked he had it in him himself, but was else could he do? They had already tried everything else they could think of, with little to no results--although Throttle had a brainstorm a couple of days after Vinnie went to the library and decided if just telling Charley-girl about herself didn't work, then maybe they should do one better and show her.

In the end this plan fell to Throttle, since of the three of them he was the best at sorting out his thoughts and displaying them in someone else's mind, and for a while Charley stopped asking to be shown around the city and sat quietly while the tan mouse replayed his memories for her. They sat like that for hours, Charley with her eyes closed while Throttle leaned close enough for the tips of his antennas to touch her forehead, face lined in concentration, but nothing he showed her triggered any significant recognition.

Not that she really seemed to mind. Every time he was ready to take a break she would plead with him to continue, claiming that it was more exciting than watching a movie, but keeping a mind connection open got pretty tiring after a while, and a few afternoons after he first had his brilliant idea Throttle got up, hobbled over to the nearest flat surface and passed out. Disappointed, Charley left him to rattle the walls with his snores and dragged Vinnie out to take her for another ride.

In fact, Vinnie noticed that she never went anywhere with either of his bros. Sometimes when they spotted her grabbing his hand and pulling him out the door they would offer to show her around for a change, but with a sweet smile and a toss of her hair, she always refused. As the days went on he noticed other things, too--subtle things that at one time would have thrilled him, but now just made him nervous. Well, there was a slight thrill factor involved, too. Just a little.

Subtle things like how, even when the other two were around, she always came to him first when she had a question about something. Or how, after he started spending several hours a day going over the medical books, she would tiptoe into the room when he wasn't paying attention, and the next time he looked up he would find her curled up across from him on the loveseat, quietly writing in her notepad...almost like she would get lonely for him. Or how more than once he caught her sneaking a peek at her notepad when she was talking to Throttle or Modo--double-checking what their names were.

She never had any trouble remembering _his_ name. And she never seemed to get tired of being around him. Definitely thrilling...but nerve-wracking.

The fact that he couldn't bring himself to say no to her for anything didn't help very much. No matter how hard he tried, in the end he would drop whatever he was doing and do anything she asked him to, whether it was helping her find something, or taking her to the doctor's, or going out for a late-night ride, just because.

And then, one quiet afternoon when he was least expecting it, the worse thing that could possibly happen...happened.

Vinnie was checking the due dates on his books, noting that he had already had them for almost two whole weeks but was willing to bet he would be able to renew them, since they probably weren't in very big demand. And then he realized something that made him stop and think back in disbelief; it had already been over two weeks since Charley's accident. Part of him--a very large part--had been hoping against hope that she would have gotten her memory back by now, but the only thing willing to come back to her so far were fragments. Random bits and pieces that kept getting smaller and popped into her head less and less after her first week home.

In the meantime, he and his bros had almost grown used to running things around here. Not that they had gone so far as reopen the garage--although they _were_ starting to get worried about what was going to happen once what little was left in Charley's bank account ran out. Since bringing her home, they had already helped her pay some of this month's bills...and he was pretty sure they had all breathed a sigh of relief when Charley-girl remembered how to make out a check and who was owed what after sitting down with the garage's paperwork for a few minutes.

Things had been running fairly smoothly since then. The dishwasher had been repaired without a hitch and they'd managed not to break anything else (yet), but he knew they couldn't go on forever without some kind of cash-flow coming in. They were either going to have to reopen the garage and hope that having Charley-girl get her hands dirty would jog the part of her brain that stored her memories of repair-work...or the three of them were going to have to--horrors!--go get jobs somewhere else.

Unfortunately, all their efforts to reintroduce Charley-girl to her profession of choice hadn't gone very well. When they fired up an old pickup that needed some loving care and handed her a toolbox, she stared blankly at the sputtering vehicle for almost a minute--until the engine backfired and she darted behind Modo with a squeak. Undaunted, they later tried pushing her in front of a bike engine that was in a sorry state, then stood by and watched hopefully. The way she ran out of the garage and up to her bedroom with Tabitha hugged in her arms, you'd have thought the old motor oil encrusting the blackened engine parts was poisonous.

Yesterday when they suggested she try again, she had politely said no thank and scurried back to the safety of her apartment. Having run out of ideas for the time being, his bros had gone out for a ride first thing this morning, and Vinnie went back to his reading--even though he was getting so bored with it he practically had to pry his eyelids open as he flipped through page after page of diagrams of the human skull and detailed sketches of its insides.

Charley wandered into the room with Tabitha in her hands just as he was covering a huge yawn, and with a smile she flopped down beside him and leaned over his arm. When she saw the image on the page, she wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Is that what my brain looks like? Ew."

Snickering, Vinnie nudged her away with his elbow. "Go on, I'm trying to concentrate."

With a wry smile, Charley rested against the arm of the sofa and scratched under Tabitha's chin. "You look ready to take a break to me," she said. "And I know just the place to get your mind off all the gray matter you've been studying."

As she spoke, she pulled out a pamphlet from where she'd had it tucked under her arm and tossed it onto the open page. Vinnie took one look at the glossy, folded paper--and let out a groan. "The zoo? You want to go to the zoo? Awww, Charley-girl..."

"Ah, come on," Charley coaxed playfully, poking him in the shoulder...with Tabitha's paw. "It'll be fun."

"If you've seen one zoo, you've seen 'em all," Vinnie responded obstinately.

"I've never seen a zoo before."

"Have so. You just..."

Don't remember, he finished silently, as his heart sank. She didn't remember her own life. Not any of the fun times, the excitement, the thrills, the explosive action, the quiet moments. Things she had done a thousand times were now brand new to her, and all they could do was keep showing her those things in the hopes that something would change.

Unaware of the direction his thoughts had gone, Charley continued to poke him with her kitten's tiny front paw. "If you won't take me, I'll just have to ask somebody else," she said sweetly. "That'll leave you with kitten-care duty. Tabs needs her litter box changed and then she needs her afternoon meal. And after lunch she likes belly-rubs."

Vinnie snorted and slapped the book shut, pamphlet and all. "I don't do belly-rubs. And I definitely don't shovel kitty-logs. So come on, zoo romp it is."

Beaming, Charley hopped up as he set his book aside and got to his feet...and noticed for the first time what she was wearing. A baby-blue sundress, short-skirted and flirty and decorated with matching blue lace around the hem and on the slender straps. He had no idea if it was something she'd put together on her sewing machine, or bought when he wasn't looking...but he definitely needed to _not_ look at how much skin the low neckline was exposing. Or at how perfectly the upper portion hugged her curves. Or how the wide blue ribbon sewn just above the skirt accentuated her slender waist.

In desperation, he quickly dropped his eyes to what he thought would be the safest place to look: her feet. She had beige sandals on--good ol' practical, boring sandals. He was just starting to feel relieved...and then he spotted what was definitely clear polish on her toenails, and...was that a flower-shaped toe ring?

God, she had cute toes.

With Tabitha hugged close to her chest and an expression that was both playful and curious, Charley suddenly leaned down and twisted her neck so she could peer at his downcast face. "Something on your mind?" she asked.

Vinnie gave himself a shake and lifted his head, averting his eyes as he casually turned for the door. "Just, um, wondering if we should pack some hot dogs for lunch," he mumbled.

"I'm getting kind of tired of hot dogs," Charley declared tartly, as she followed him into the main part of the garage. "Let's just see what they're selling when we get there. They have food vendors in zoos, don't they?"

"Yes--hot dog stands, mostly," he teased.

Over-priced hot dog stands, he added to himself, but Charley was apparently determined to have the full experience, and she slung her purse over her shoulder before grabbing his arm with her free hand, eager to get their little trip underway. His bros were just coming in as they both headed out (Charley passed Tabitha and all kitten-care duties to Modo) barely exchanging a hi and goodbye before they mounted his bike and took off.

Vinnie had been through Lincoln Park several times in the past, but he had only stopped in the zoo once, because...well, zoos got pretty boring after a while. They were always so crowded you had no choice except to walk slow, and the only thing you could really do was look. He'd found out the last time he was here that they frowned pretty hard when you touched stuff.

But like always, he just couldn't bring himself to say no, and so he pulled into a parking space in the already full lot. Admission was free, but you had to pay to park, so he grudgingly handed over a wad of bills to the guy operating the booth before heading up the front walk and through the main entrance. Just like he expected it to be on a clear summer day, the place was packed--not to mention hot, what with the sun beating down from the almost cloudless sky. Which wasn't going to make this day a whole lot of fun for him, since he was going to have to keep his helmet on the whole time.

Fortunately, Charley didn't object whenever he steered her into a building, whether it was a gift shop or small animal house. She liked to browse and she enjoyed looking at the tropical birds, the big cats--and she especially got a kick out of the monkey house. Vinnie's favorite was when they went in to look at the snakes and bats, because they kept it nice and dark in there. He ducked into a shadowed corner when no one was looking and let his ears breathe for a few minutes.

It wasn't the biggest zoo in town and it was easily possible to see everything there was to see in one visit, and Charley insisted on exploring every last area. She kept checking the map she grabbed on their way in, though they didn't follow any particular pattern. Vinnie grew bored after the first hour or so, but Charley remained entranced the entire day, hovering at every exhibit for ages before she was ready to move on.

After they lingered for an extra long time by the camels, Charley-girl all but pouted when they finally returned to the main path--but Vinnie brightened, because they were right across from the ice cream shop. "Come on," he said, taking her hand, "let's go cool off for a while."

Only trouble was it looked like a third of everyone else wandering the zoo today had the same idea, so with a heavy sigh he got in the lengthy line, not appreciating the heaviness of the noon-day sun weighing down on top of his helmet. It made his head swim after a while, so it wasn't until they had finally shuffled to the front of the line and then took their orders to the nearby picnic area to eat in the shade did he notice something familiar about what he was seeing.

There wasn't any room left to sit, so the two of them stood under a tree growing at the edge of the patio and quickly started on their cones before they melted. He'd ordered strawberry with sprinkles; Charley had a swirl cone. A chocolate and vanilla swirl cone, and she stood gazing off into the distance as she ate it in delicate licks, spots of sunlight glowing on her hair through the leaves above her.

Vinnie felt a sensation he knew all too well start to form in his chest as he watched her--an ache of longing that grew inside his heart until it hurt. It actually hurt.

Feeling his eyes on her, Charley suddenly looked over at him. "Anything wrong?"

The first answer that wasn't really an answer to pop into his head was a crack about déjà vu--but on second thought that didn't seem like a very good idea, considering that he was talking to a woman who couldn't remember living her life in the first place. So instead he flashed a faint smile and said softly, "Just noticing how pretty you look today."

He half-expected her to get embarrassed and tell him to cut it out, but instead she smiled shyly--almost knowingly--at him for a moment before turning her attention back to her cone. Once both their treats were finished and their temperatures had gone back to a more comfortable degree, she smiled again and held out her hand, eyes expectant. Vinnie hesitated for a long moment before he finally reached over and closed his fingers around hers, holding her hand tightly.

The day was wearing on by the time they reached the far end of the zoo. Charley practically skipped in delight; Vinnie's nose almost complained out loud, because she tugged him straight into the barn animal exhibit. She went 'awww' over the baby piglets, watched a video of baby chicks hatching, then insisted they stick around to view a cow-milking demonstration. Good thing it was summertime...otherwise it would have been getting dark by the time they moved on.

But it looked like they had finally seen all there was to see, aside from the small lake that stretched before them as they headed farther down the walkway. There was a long bridge clustered with people up ahead, but Charley was already steering him down closer to the water, to a series of docks near a kiosk.

A spot where they rented out paddle boats, Vinnie realized. And yes, they even included the most cheesy of all boating creations: the white swan-shaped paddle boat. The very sight had his inner-biker cringing in pain.

As Charley continued to pull him relentlessly closer to the docks, Vinnie scrunched up his nose in a grimace and said slowly, "Sweetheart, I'm going to ask you nicely..."

Charley-girl paused and looked at his expression, eyes dancing. She let out a playful laugh and turned back to the water. "That one," she said firmly.

Bracing himself, Vinnie looked where she was pointing...and saw a normal paddle boat, colored bright red. He let out his breath in relief. "Thank you. Propelling something with my feet is going to look silly enough."

"It's good exercise," Charley remarked, eyes dancing playfully again.

A few minutes later they were paddling away from the docks, and even though he really did feel silly, it was kind of refreshing, too. It was cooler out here, and he had to admit the scenery was nice. The trees surrounding the lake were wearing their brightest summer greens, and the bushes growing close to the water were stretching their foliage down low, some of them shedding small blossoms.

It was quiet and peaceful, with only a murmur of voices in the distance and the gentle quack of the ducks swimming around...and the smell from the barns wasn't so bad over here. Vinnie paddled wordlessly--for about five minutes, and that was all he could stand. Leaning forward over the steering wheel with a grin, he watched a set of ducks that were in danger of passing them. "Think we can take 'em?" he wondered.

Charley laughed softly and shook her head. "Can't you move slowly for once? I want to enjoy this."

Vinnie pouted his lower lip, but Charley rested her hands on the plastic seat and leaned her head back, watching the sky as she peddled absently. Sighing, Vinnie continued to steer as his eyes--and mind--wandered while his boredom grew. To him, it was too nice of a day to spend walking. It was the perfect day to go for a long ride, what with the sky so clear and blue, and the air calm and clean-smelling (aside from the distant hint of goat and cow pie, that is), and the trees quietly rustling in the gentle breeze.

As he steered around a bend, making sure not to catch on the shrubs and bushes that were dangling over the water's edge, he noticed that it looked like everyone who was crossing the nearby bridge was enjoying the afternoon, too. Only it looked like most of them up there were standing still right now, talking and laughing together--and even exchanging hugs--like old friends at a party. Come to think of it, they were kind of dressed like they were at a party, the men in crisp suits and the women in pretty dresses. There were frequent flashes of light as someone snapped pictures.

And then he spied a couple standing together near the center of the wide stone bridge, him with his arm around her shoulders and her with her arm snugged around his waist, their matching smiles the dazzling smiles of blissful happiness. He was wearing a black suit and she was in a frothy white gown...and holding a small bouquet of flowers and wearing a filmy veil.

Wait, they held weddings in zoos now? He'd officially seen everything.

The ceremony must have just finished because the bridal party looked like it was dispersing, and Vinnie continued to watch, turning his head to look over his shoulder in bemusement as the boat moved on. He had unconsciously stopped pedaling, though the boat continued to drift forward--until it stopped with a jolt as the front corner bumped into hard soil. Branches scraped against the side as he hastily steered in the opposite direction.

"Whoops--sorry about that," he said sheepishly.

But instead of scolding him for not looking where he was going, Charley laughed softly. After making sure they were safely out in the middle of the water again, Vinnie turned his head to look at her--and felt that familiar ache start to form in his heart again.

Bumping into the branches had caused a shower of white flower petals to fall all over her, and with another laugh she started brushing them off her skirt and shoulders. In the warm sunlight her skin looked like it was glowing, like a golden aura was surrounding her from head to toe. Her red-brown hair looked more red right now, with sun-kissed highlights glittering along each strand, almost as if they were on fire on the inside. The sound of her soft laughter was almost as unreal as her appearance.

Charley shook out her skirt, creating a snowfall of petals as she looked over her shoulder--over at the happy couple still posing for pictures on the bridge. "Kind of a funny spot to get married," she noted. "But I guess any place can be romantic, if it means something to you and the one you love."

She smiled warmly as she faced him again. Vinnie forced a smile of his own as he reached over to pluck a white blossom from her hair. "Can't say a single guy like me gives stuff like that much thought."

* * *

When they left the docks later and headed back onto the main path, Charley noted sadly that there wasn't anything else left for them to do--and just in time, too. The early evening sky was rapidly turning a dull gray, with heavy storm clouds rolling in over the horizon. The setting sun was soon blotted from sight and a chilly wind started up, making the trees rustle and sway as the two of them hurried to the exit. It looked like the storm was blowing in pretty quickly, but as they reached the parking lot and got on his bike, Vinnie was confident that he could beat the rain home.

At least he was until a few blocks later when he felt a splash of moisture hit his face just as the wind started blowing harder. Sputtering, he hastily turned his helmet's visor on, though there wasn't anything he could do to protect the rest of him as a deluge started to fall all at once. It was annoying--and cold--and if he had been alone he would have gone faster and then dried off as soon as he got home, but he had a passenger wearing a delicate sundress and a helmet with no visor sitting behind him.

Vinnie quickly hunted for cover with his eyes, though the rain was getting so thick it was hard to see. But then, after turning down an empty side street, he spotted a small park with picnic benches under a weathered shelter. The space was a little small, but there was just enough room for him to park his bike next to one of the metal tables, where she'd be comfortable until the rain stopped.

They had only been out in the downpour for a few minutes, but the temperature had dropped significantly already, and Vinnie felt chilled as he dismounted onto dry concrete and tugged his helmet off. As she hopped down from his bike and pulled off her own helmet, Charley didn't look unhappy about their unplanned pit stop--but she did look cold. Her skin, glowing so warmly just a little while ago, had paled to a milky-white, the blueish veins on the insides of her slender wrists bright and visible. Vinnie watched with a frown as she shivered while she shook out her hair and started squeezing water out of her skirt. "Here," he said.

Before he fully realized what he was doing, he had taken both her hands and pressed them between his own. Even when wet, his furry body was warmer than hers, and he gently massaged her fingers for a moment before drawing a little closer to her, wanting to share what body heat he could. Charley's teeth chattered as she smiled weakly at him; Vinnie frowned again as he began briskly rubbing her bare arms, hoping to coax a little color back into her limbs.

"Sorry the day had to end like this," he said, sighing.

Charley wasn't shivering as hard as before, and she smiled again, her eyes traveling over his face. "It's all right. I had a wonderful time."

Vinnie smiled faintly in return as he brushed a few soaked strands of hair from her face. It occurred to him that he kind of had his arms around her right now, but...he was too tired and too cold to worry about it. If Charley didn't mind, then neither did he.

If anything, Charley looked more comfortable than ever as he started rubbing her arms up near her shoulders. Her eyes were still on his face, studying him intently...almost like she was searching for something. "Vinnie," she said in a quiet voice, "can I ask you something?"

His smile was warm as he rested his hands on her shoulders. "Sure. You can always ask me anything."

Something deep inside her green eyes seemed to light up, and her face was suddenly full of hope--an anxious kind of hope. And then she asked the one question he could never have been prepared to face if he'd tried.

"Do you love me?"

It was like all the warmth had been sucked out of his body--drawn into a tight little ball in his chest and dropped out of his stomach. "What?"

"Do you love me," she repeated.

Her face was shining and her eyes were starry. She looked so eager, so hopeful...while Vinnie knew his expression had gone as blank as it had ever been. His heart had stopped beating and he felt numb all over--and there was a little voice deep inside him telling him what he should do. It was the only thing he could do. The thing he knew he _needed_ to do.

Say no. Do something right for a change, you stupid mouse. Say _no_.

His mouth had gone so dry his tongue felt like paper, and his throat constricted painfully as he swallowed. "The thing is, Charley-girl..."

Say no, the voice repeated. Tell her you care about her as a friend, but that's it.

"You see, the way it is--the way you and me are..."

Say _no_. Say it!

Charley's eyes were watching him intently--bright and starry and full of longing. She was holding her breath as she waited for him to answer, her upturned face rapt. Vinnie forced himself to meet her gaze as he drew in a breath and opened his mouth--and felt like something inside of him suddenly snapped, taking away the control he had over his own body. As if they were acting on their own, the hands still resting on her small shoulders pulled her forward to him, one arm going around her back while his hand cupped the back of her head, cradling her head to his chest as his own head sank.

"Yes," he whispered. "Yes, Charley, I love you. I love you with all my heart."

The world seemed to go still. There were no cars on the deserted road, and the rain had lessened, a gentle whisper of sound in the background. A quiet peal of thunder rumbled in the far distance.

Charley stirred in his arms, lifting her face so she could meet his eyes again. And those eyes, her face...they were filled with so much joy, it seemed to light up her whole body. She was standing on her toes, reaching for him, tugging at the bandana around his neck with one hand and cupping his cheek with the other. She lifted her face as she pulled him closer. And he felt the feather-soft touch of her breath on his muzzle a second before her mouth found his.

The world hadn't just gone still--time itself had stopped. Nothing else existed right now except for this moment, which was a moment he had been wishing for practically from the moment they met. He fantasized about it whenever his mind wandered, he saw it in his dreams at night. He wasn't convinced that he wasn't dreaming this very second, but one thing was for sure; it was better than he ever imagined.

The touch of her lips was softer than he thought possible, the taste of them oh-so-sweet. His heart was racing and his eyes had closed, and a warmth spread from her mouth to his and on through his very veins, until he felt flushed all over. It was amazing, wonderful--and it felt so _right_.

It was exactly what he'd been longing for all this time, and for one brief moment, he forgot everything else and let himself believe that it was his, that this was meant just for him. And then it came back to him why this was anything but right, and like hitting the brakes too hard on an icy road, the euphoria slipped and crashed to a halt.

He'd made a promise--a promise not to go where he didn't belong. A promise not to take advantage of a woman with amnesia.

The rush of guilt and shame he felt spirited away the warmth that had been building inside him, and with a thick swallow Vinnie pulled away just enough to break the kiss...though the feel of her lips lingered for long after. Blissfully unaware of anything being wrong, Charley released a sigh of contentment and cuddled her head on his chest. So comfortable and natural in his arms.

Vinnie absently petted her hair as he pictured what his bros were going to do to him when they found out about this. But more than getting an earful, he was worried about Charley ending up hurt because of him--again. He had no business leading her into something when there was nothing between them...even if his feelings were real.

Swallowing thickly again, he gave her shoulder a pat and stepped back, slowly pulling his arms away. The rain was little more than a gentle mist now, and with the sun going down it was only going to get colder, so he put a hand on Charley's back and turned her to his bike. "Come on," he said quietly, trying to force a smile but failing. "Let's get you home."


	6. Chapter 6

All throughout the rest of the ride home, Vinnie's mind was a jumbled mess. He felt like telling Charley not to mention what just happened between them to anyone--especially not to his bros--but in the end he decided to keep his mouth shut. He knew he deserved any repercussions that were headed his way. And for a while he thought about pretending like the moment under the shelter--that wonderful, breath-robbing moment--never happened, but then it occurred to him that it might not be such a hot idea. It would probably make Charley even more likely to bring it up--wondering why he was trying to act like nothing had changed after admitting what he did.

He didn't want to have that conversation--for a multitude of reasons--but right now it seemed unavoidable. So did the fallout from his bros when they found out just how far out of the friend zone he had stepped, but when the two of them finally got back to the garage, the sounds of loud music, playful barbs and the clack of cue balls hitting each other was coming from the rec room.

Vinnie wasn't surprised that his bros were indoors for the evening. The rain had turned heavy again--heavier than when it first started to fall--and there was an unfriendly bite to the cold wind. Vinnie parked his bike inside next to his bros', with a whispered promise to come back and dry her off later. Charley had gotten chilled during the last couple of miles, and after he closed the overhead door he put an arm around her shivering form and guided her out of the garage and up to her bedroom.

He felt pretty numb himself, both inside and out, and his tired body was operating on autopilot as he let go of Charley and drifted across the room to the closed bathroom door. He only intended to reach in, grab the nearest towel and close the door again...but when he focused on the small room's interior, he stopped and stared.

It wasn't at all like he had been picturing. He figured it looked a lot like the small bathroom down in the garage; monochrome white, with plain silver faucets and uninteresting light fixtures. Sure, he expected her to have added small touches to make the private room homey and hers, but...reality went well beyond anything he ever imagined.

The small square tiles of the ceramic floor were white, and draped with a round, fuzzy rug colored dusty rose. The walls were covered in a cream paper lined with dusty rose stripes and dotted with tiny blue flowers. The wall sconces hanging on either side of the mirror above the sink had petal-shaped globes. The mirror was framed in natural wood colored a warm nut brown, which matched the cabinets under the sink. The sink's marble counter top was also dusty rose--while the nearby toilet was powder blue.

The sink's faucet and nearby towel ring and the towel bar on the opposite wall were gold-colored. The hand towels had pink and blue ribbons on them. There was a ceramic dish full of flower-shaped soap on the corner of the sink. And the big white tub on the other side of the room was an antique claw-foot design, with a gold faucet and handles that matched the sink's, and a row of shampoo and soap bottles lined up on a small ledge behind the tub--along with numerous unlit pillar candles of varying sizes, colors, and fragrances.

Vinnie felt like he'd stepped into a different world. It didn't seem possible for this place to be connected, even distantly, to the garage downstairs. It was soft and pretty and entirely feminine, not matching even Charley's nearby bedroom, which was relatively gender-neutral. It wasn't a place he would have ever picked out as belonging to Charley-girl--and that was because, he suddenly realized, it wasn't a place he was ever supposed to see.

This was the one place where Charley was able to shed the coarseness of her work and just enjoy her own femininity, indulging in it in a way she couldn't--and wouldn't--anywhere else. And then the tub would be drained, the bubbles rinsed off, the work clothes put back on, and the door locked firmly behind her. This secret part of her was supposed to stay sealed safely away.

Only now that she had amnesia, Charley-girl had forgotten that she wasn't supposed to let this part of herself out anywhere else.

Giving his head a shake to clear it, Vinnie fumbled for and tugged down a towel from the bar and hastily closed the door again. He returned to Charley, who was standing near her bed and shivering so hard her teeth were chattering...yet her blue lips turned up in a smile when he started drying her hair. He rubbed the towel over her crown for a while, then moved it down to the ends. As he was squeezing water out, Charley suddenly lifted her face, her nose bumping his as her cheek brushed against his muzzle.

Vinnie responded automatically, his body reacting without thought--like it was reflex. His mouth quickly hunted for and found her waiting lips, while a very eager voice somewhere inside him yelled, "Woo! More smooching!"

For the briefest of seconds he forgot himself and closed his eyes happily as he surrendered to the urge--but then the guilt came rushing back and he quickly pulled away. "We shouldn't," he mumbled.

Charley's forehead lined in confusion; Vinnie deliberately avoided meeting her puzzled gaze as he started drying off her damp arms. "What's wrong?" she asked. 

Steeling himself, Vinnie kept his gaze averted as he fumbled for the right words. "Well, you and me--things just aren't like that between us," he faltered, blotting moisture off her shoulders.

Out of the corner of his downcast eye, he saw her frown. "But...you said you loved me."

His ears warmed. "I did--I mean, I do, but..."

He trailed off, his heart sinking in resignation. There was no graceful way out of this. With a small sigh, he set the dampened towel aside, then gently took her hands and held them between his. "I do love you," he said quietly as he finally looked her in the eye. "Always have, always will. But I never told you before because I know you don't feel the same way about me. We're friends--good friends," he hastily added when her frown deepened, "but that's all. And I shouldn't go where I don't belong just because you don't remember that."

The room turned quiet. Vinnie felt uncomfortably awkward--and cold. All he really wanted to do now was get away from this unpleasant moment, dry off, and go to sleep. But he knew things might be even worse when he woke up in the morning; what was going to happen now when Charley-girl finally got her memory back? She wasn't going to appreciate what he had said and done today. At best she would feel uncomfortable around him for a while--and at worst he had ruined the closeness they once shared and she would never trust him again. The thought made his heart ache and chilled him even worse than he already was.

And then Charley frowned at him, her eyebrows drawing together. "I think you're wrong."

Vinnie frowned in return. "Huh?"

She gave her head a small shake before reaching a hand up and resting it on the furry side of his face. "I think you're wrong," she repeated, her thumb caressing his cheek. "Ever since I first saw you at the hospital, before I even knew your name...I've felt so happy when you're around. I know it sounds corny, but every time I see you it's like a light turns on, and it turns off as soon as you're gone. When I'm not with you it makes me feel empty, and when I _am_ with you..."

She paused, her eyes traveling his face. Slowly, she withdrew her hand and slid her arms around him, resting her head on his chest. With a slow release of breath, she closed her eyes and tightened her hold. "These feelings had to have come from somewhere," she murmured.

Vinnie wanted so much for that to be true. He wanted to put his arms around her and hold her as tight as he could...and for a moment he did. He wrapped his arms around her small frame and for several blissful seconds held her close and secure to him--and then he hastily nudged her away again, stepping back from her grasp at the same time.

Charley made a sound of protest, but Vinnie turned and hurried out of her bedroom, closing the door behind him. Downstairs, he took a long, hot shower before curling up on one of the sofas, pulling the blanket up to his ears. His bros asked him a few curious questions, like where he and Charley had been all day, but Vinnie pretended to be asleep and didn't answer.

He had a restless night that night, and when he woke up the next morning from what little sleep he got, it was still raining. The garage felt cold--or maybe it was just him--so he didn't mind it much when he sat up to find Tabitha's toasty little body curled up on his chest.

While his bros got up to start on breakfast, Vinnie and the kitten lingered in the rec room, though Tabitha eventually scampered off when Charley called her. Vinnie stayed put, loafing around for most of the morning as his mind wandered--until he suddenly remembered he needed to renew his books, which gave him an excuse to leave the garage for a couple of hours. Renewing everything didn't take _that_ long, but he wasn't anxious to get back to the garage, because he was afraid of what Charley was going to say to him the next time he saw her. When he finally rode back, the rain had stopped and he found his bros outside barbecuing more hot dogs for lunch.

As soon as he had his bike parked, Vinnie said, "I think we should go back to sleeping at the scoreboard."

Throttle looked up from the grill with a puzzled frown. "How come?"

"Um..."

Vinnie thought fast. "We've been doing everything for Charley-girl since she got back from the hospital. If we aren't around for a few hours she'll have to think about taking care of herself for a change. Maybe the extra brain-work will help jog something."

Throttle appeared to think this over as he turned back to the grill, while Modo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You might be on to somethin' there," he mused.

Though it was quickly decided that they weren't going to leave her alone during the night--just in case. But they all agreed that they would leave the garage as a group for several hours a day from now on, though they'd be sure to keep tabs on things from a distance for that time. And at night they were going to start trading off who would sleep at the garage while the other two went to the scoreboard. Vinnie promptly volunteered Modo for tonight.

Both his bros gave him a funny look in response, but neither of them said anything. Not that they had to; Vinnie knew what they were thinking. They were wondering if he was really being this well-behaved, or if he was trying to cover up something he didn't want them to know about. Vinnie pretended not to notice their accusing looks and went to eat lunch alone. Well, alone except for Tabitha, who decided to come and take her afternoon nap on his lap.

After lunch he kept to himself for the rest of the day, and when night fell he was the first to ride back to the scoreboard. That night he tossed and turned as he tried to think of just what he was going to say to Charley the next time he saw her--because he knew this wasn't the last time she was going to ask him about what he'd said, or what he'd done. Or why he thought it was such a bad idea for him to do it again.

He needed to make her understand that pushing her away was in her best interest, and he needed to make that clear without accidentally hurting her feelings in the process. Which wasn't going to be easy, since it didn't make a whole lot of sense for him to say that he loved her one minute and then tell her to forget about it the next. He blamed himself for her thinking that she might possibly share his feelings--it had to be his fault, somehow. During all the time they had spent together over the last couple of weeks, he must have unconsciously let how he really felt about her slip out in small, subtle ways that planted the idea in her head that there was something more between them--that she felt more for him than she actually did.

He knew he had to set her straight; he just hoped that he would be able to come up with the right thing to say by the time it was his turn to sleep at the garage. But in the end, Charley didn't wait that long to confront him.

The next afternoon it was raining again, so Vinnie tucked himself away in the back of the rec room, lounging on the loveseat with his collection of medical texts scattered around him and a steady supply of root beer on the nearby end table. He tried to be as quiet as he could, hoping that the others would forget he was back here--except for Tabitha, who quickly found him and parked herself on his knee.

Charley came in a little while later. And after moving her kitten carefully aside, she sat down next to the furry biker with his nose jammed into the book he was pretending to be absorbed in and leaned against his side, resting her cheek on his shoulder. "I think you're being very unfair about this."

Vinnie decided to play dumb. "I know I'm kind of monopolizing them, but I think helping you out is more important than somebody who needs them to study for exams or something."

A blank look crossed Charley's pretty face--and then she scowled hard in annoyance. She reached over, snatched the hefty book out of his hands and placed it on the table with a bang. "That's _not_ what I'm talking about," she said hotly.

She brushed a stray hair away from her eyes with a huff...while Vinnie felt a warm rush of affection fill his heart. Since she lost her memory, she hadn't gotten mad at or raised her voice at him once. Seeing her lose her patience with him was like getting a glimpse of the old Charley...and she was so darn cute when she was mad.

"I'm talking about how you keep trying to avoid me."

"Oh?"

Keeping his expression innocent, Vinnie folded his hands on his middle as his discreetly edged away from her, until he was pressed up against the arm of the loveseat. Charley quickly scooted closer again, resting a hand on the back of the loveseat as she continued to scowl at him. "I thought I _was_ avoiding you," Vinnie noted casually, absently tapping the tips of his thumbs together.

"It's not fair," Charley repeated. "You can't tell me you love me and then expect me to act like it never happened."

"I know," Vinnie sighed, deflating in defeat, "but--"

"But nothing," Charley interrupted firmly. "I still think you're wrong about how I feel about you. Maybe I just never told you for the same reason you never told me."

Vinnie opened his mouth to object--but then closed it again, forehead lining in thought. That did make sense. Maybe Charley-girl had cared about him a lot more than he thought all this time but never let on, because she didn't think his feelings for her were serious. After all, he was a pretty big flirt, and since he and Charley weren't exactly together he never hesitated to let someone else grab his attention--any girl who happened to catch his eye.

It was a possibility that made his heart speed up--but he quickly squashed his excitement down. There was still a chance that Charley was wrong and she didn't see him as anything more than a good friend, and never would. It was a chance that his conscience wasn't going to let him take--as badly as he wanted to--and he tried hard to explain this to her. "It's not right," he said, as she gave him a pert frown. "Or as you put it, not fair. It's like taking advantage of you."

"Why don't you let me decide that for myself?" Charley asked seriously. "You could be right, but what if you're not? What if I've always loved you just as much as you love me?"

"I dunno--I suppose it's possible," Vinnie said doubtfully. "But we can't know for sure until you get your memory back."

The pretty mechanic sat back with another huff of annoyance. "That would certainly help, but what if I never get it back? What if I've officially restarted my whole life from this point on? And you and I end up wasting the rest of our lives waiting for memories that don't exist anymore? I can just picture it: the two of us loving each other but doing nothing about it as we grow old side by side, waiting day after day for a memory that'll prove one of us right to come back, until we're both dead and buried. Talk about a waste."

Put that way, it _would_ be pretty tragic if he forced himself--and her--to never act on his feelings because of that shadow of doubt. It didn't seem any more fair than what he was trying to do right now. If anything, it seemed even less fair. Shaking his head and chuckling weakly, he slumped against the arm of the loveseat. "Okay, you win. Just what do you want me to do?"

Hope flickered through her green eyes; she moved closer and touched his face. Her thumb brushed softly over his mouth. "I want to be with you _now_ , not later," she said. "Not when 'later' might never come."

Seeing how eager she was about this made his heart speed up again, but he made sure not to let it show. Vinnie could barely believe it; he had always imagined that if he and Charley ever became a twosome, he would be hollering it from the rooftops. And now here they were, Charley all but begging him to be hers, and him holding down the brakes so hard, he was practically going backwards.

Not that he wanted to. Part of him was ready to throw all caution to the wind and take this situation head-on...but as long as the possibility that Charley could end up hurt existed, he was going to brake the entire way.

Although when Charley suddenly leaned closer and pressed a warm kiss to his mouth, he didn't object. "So," she said casually, as she leaned against him and traced the tip of her finger over his muzzle, "does this mean you're going to be mine?"

Vinnie thought about that for a minute. Thought about what they were both risking if they pursued this. But looking at those wide, eager eyes of hers, and feeling the steady rhythm of her heart beating against his side, he knew he couldn't deny the truth. With a quiet smile, he put his arm around her shoulders and urged her closer; she responded by settling against his chest, placing her hand up near his heart and propping her chin on the back of it as her gaze wandered his face. "I always have been," he told her. "All you needed to do was say the word. _But_ ," he hastily added, as a grin broke out and she made a move like she was going to kiss him again, "I have to insist that we take this slow. And I mean _super_ slow."

Charley looked disappointed. And did he really just insist that he needed to move slowly? He was pretty sure that a sign that the world was about to end.

"How come?" she asked. "It's not like we're strangers."

"No," he admitted, "but there's still a chance that you're wrong, and a chance that your memory _will_ come back. I don't want you to end up doing something you'll feel ashamed of later."

Pursing her lips, the pretty mechanic tapped his nose. "I don't see how I could ever be ashamed of being with a sweet guy like you," she said crisply. "But if it turns out you're right and I'm actually not crazy about you, then it's my fault. I'm the one who insisted that we go for it."

Vinnie gazed at her mutely for a moment, expression blank. "Your fault? As in not mine? Can I get that in writing?"

Charley rolled her eyes. "Shush, you're ruining the magic."

He snickered; she smirked before closing her eyes and kissing him again. "Slow," she agreed in a whisper, her mouth hovering over his.

"Super slow," he whispered back.

And as the afternoon wore on, and a gentle rain continued to fall, their kisses and soft touches stayed slow. Cautious. Savoring. And with his bros keeping themselves occupied out front, their only chaperone was the tiny kitten sleeping on top of Vinnie's boot.

* * *

The sky cleared up in time to reveal the setting sun, and it was around then that Throttle suggested they head out and patrol the city for a few hours. The news that she was going to be left alone--and would be left alone for a while each day from now on--gave Charley an adorable case of separation anxiety.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," Vinnie told her cheekily, while she clung to him and peppered his face with kisses.

"You just better be back in time to tuck me in. And tomorrow, we're spending the whole day together."

"We just spent the whole day together two days ago, remember?"

"And your point is?" she asked lightly, before trapping his face in her hands and kissing him...just as heavy footsteps approached the rec room doorway.

By the time Throttle had stepped completely into the room, Charley was seated demurely on the loveseat, writing busily in her notepad with a kitten on her lap. Vinnie had no idea she could move that fast.

And he hadn't exactly told her that letting the others know what they were up to would probably get him in trouble...but it looked like she had figured it out on her own and was making sure neither of his bros got wind of it. "Just grabbing one for the road," Vinnie said casually, as he pulled a root beer out of the mini fridge and popped it open. Throttle gave him a funny look but decided not to ask.

Outside, the city still seemed peaceful, the night air warm and damp from all the rain. It felt good to be out riding just for the fun of it for a change, and Vinnie let himself enjoy it...even as part of him remained anxious to get back to the garage. Though that didn't stop him from goofing around with his bros as they road downtown, the glow of lights brightening around them as the sky darkened high overhead.

They ended up stopping for hot dogs, lingered at a few of their favorite hangouts, then stopped for more hot dogs before finally heading back to the garage. Although Vinnie and Modo were only pausing here briefly to say goodnight, since it was late and it was Throttle's turn to crash in the rec room.

Vinnie promptly came up with the excuse of needing another root beer before darting through the garage, then discreetly doubled back and tiptoed through Charley's apartment and up to her room. It was dark inside and she was already bed, with Tabitha curled up on the blanket by her feet. Vinnie wasn't sure if she was awake or not, but as he leaned down to smooth the covers, she rolled over and opened her eyes. Even in the darkness, he could see her smiling as she gazed up at him.

His heart warming, Vinnie pulled the blanket up and tucked it under her chin, then brushed a hand over her cheek as he bent to kiss her goodnight. She smelled awfully good, he noted, as Charley returned the kiss with a little murmur of contentment. She felt warm, too...must have just had a bath.

He pecked her nose playfully before pulling away, making her giggle. "You smell like bike exhaust," she told him.

"Yeah? You smell like peaches and crushed roses. You need to get out on the road more."

She giggled again and poked him; he quickly trapped her hand and kissed her fingers. "Goodnight, sweetheart," he whispered. "I love you."

Charley settled back against her pillow with a warm smile. "I love you, too."

With an ache in his heart, Vinnie tucked her hand under the blanket before straightening up. "You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear you say that."

In fact, he was pretty sure he had never felt happier in his entire life than he did that very minute. Tearing himself away and riding back to the scoreboard was hard, and he tossed in his hammock long after Modo started snoring. He couldn't wait to see Charley in the morning. He couldn't wait to see where the day took them. And he especially couldn't wait to hear again how much his-- _his_ \--Charley-girl cared about him.

But a quietly nagging worry kept gnawing at the back of his mind, even after he finally drifted off to sleep. He sure hoped that what the two of them had set into motion today didn't turn out to be a big mistake.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Vinnie wasted no time getting out of bed and over to the garage. He burst through the door ahead of his bros, which gave him a chance to privately greet his Charley-girl, who happily ran to his open arms. Vinnie would have done more than just hug her, if it hadn't been for the squirming feline clutched to her chest.

"Y'know, I've been so worried about you it kind of slipped my mind," he said, as he let go and took a cautious step back, "but your new baby might end up being trouble for me."

He wasn't sure why she wasn't troubling him already, but he wasn't about to complain.

Charley looked puzzled, and she pouted as she held her kitten up to him, who purred and rubbed her head against his cheek. "Awww, come on, Tabs isn't trouble to anybody," said Charley with a sniff. "And she's smart. She figured out right away who her mommy's favorite person is."

Vinnie couldn't help smiling at that, but he gently nudged the purring kitten away from his face. "I meant allergically-speaking."

"Oh. Well, she's still just a kitten, so no worries. Cats generally don't develop enough dander to bother people until they're older."

Charley paused, then made a face. "Now, how did I know that? Did I use to own a cat...?"

She was still scratching her head over it when his bros joined them. As Vinnie casually walked away, he said, "She's growing like a weed, so I'll be keeping my distance from now on. No point in tempting fate."

* * *

The rest of the morning was business as usual. Charley made them all breakfast, after which Vinnie and his bros goofed around before heading out to patrol around the city for a few hours, plus continue with their plan to leave Charley on her own for a little while each day. When they got back to the garage, Charley was standing in front of the main door looking like she was waiting to be taken somewhere--taken somewhere by him, Vinnie quickly realized. He hadn't forgotten her saying last night that she wanted to spend the whole day with him.

She sure looked like she was ready for an afternoon out. She was dressed in a pale green, off the shoulder sleeveless blouse and a loose-fitting ankle-length cream skirt, and instead of her casual sandals she had on a pair of fancier green wedges. In place of her purse, there was a small drawstring bag made from floral fabric looped around her right wrist. Like her clothes, it looked like she had sewn the colorful bag herself.

Charley barely waited for Vinnie to stop before she hopped on the back of his bike and locked her arms around him. Vinnie put on the most innocent expression he could as his bros eyed them both curiously. "Where are you two headed?" Throttle wondered.

"Lunch," Charley responded, light as a breeze. "After that we'll see. Oh," she hastily added, as Vinnie turned and sped toward the road, "Could you two watch Tabitha for me? Thanks!"

She waved until the two mice were out of sight, then put both arms around Vinnie again. With a hum of contentment, Vinnie settled in her embrace and didn't pull over for lunch until he felt good and ready to.

Afterward, the two of them left his bike behind and set off on foot, with no real goal in mind other than to just enjoy each other's company. With his arm around her waist and her head on his shoulder, they walked the streets of Chicago together, surrounded by the sounds of traffic, the voices of citizens, the occasional loudness of a plane flying low overhead. Unlike the last few days, the afternoon was sunny and clear, with barely a cloud in sight as they moved down Lakefront Trail.

On one side was acres of grass and rows of trees, and beyond them was a skyline of buildings stretching high over the treetops and half fading into the blue above. On the other side was Lake Michigan, and the breeze that was blowing across the water kept the air to a much cooler temperature than it had been during their zoo trip. It kept the fact that he wore his helmet while they strolled down the long, wide path together from getting uncomfortable...but even though there were loads of other hikers, and joggers, and bicyclists out today, they were all bustling on by, content in their own worlds. No one noticed when the two of them moved off the path, where Vinnie shed his helmet and, on a bench in the shade of a tree with lush, sagging branches, he and his Charley-girl got lost in a world of their own.

When they finally broke apart for air, Charley released a happy little sigh and cuddled her head on his shoulder...though her eyes were raised in question. "How long until we tell the others about us?"

Vinnie wasn't sure how to answer that, so he stalled by asking, "How did you know I wanted to keep it a secret for now?"

"The way you get nervous whenever someone else is around," the pretty mechanic responded crisply. "It wasn't exactly hard to figure out."

The white mouse smiled sadly as he tightened his arm around her waist. "Don't know how we're going to tell them-- _if_ we can tell them. They made me promise not to take advantage of you while you can't remember that we aren't more than friends."

"But that's not what happened," Charley said with a frown. "You never tried to trick me into thinking that we were already a couple. You've done everything you can all this time to try and protect my feelings. All you did was tell me the truth when I asked if you loved me."

Smiling suddenly, she tightened her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his chest with another happy sigh. "And I'm so glad you did. It would have broken my heart if you'd said no."

"Mine too," Vinnie murmured, softly stroking her hair.

He grew quiet as he thought about what she was saying. She made an awfully good point. They were together, but it hadn't happened like his bros worried it might. He'd never said a single word; she'd figured out how he felt on her own, and she loved him too. That definitely changed things.

"They care about us and want us to be happy, don't they?" Charley asked in a quiet voice. "I understand what they were trying to do and I appreciate their concern, but my head is more than clear enough for me to make up my own mind. I want to be with you, even if I can't remember our past together. I still know that I love you."

Smiling again, she pulled him closer and kissed him for a long moment. "Okay," said Vinnie when they parted again. "We'll tell them. Well, you'll tell them," he corrected himself with a grin. "If they hear it from you first, maybe it'll save me a few kicks in the pants."

Charley rolled her eyes and pinched him; Vinnie snickered and drew her close again. Between the soft kisses they bestowed on each other, Vinnie mumbled, "Do we have to tell them right away? Can't we keep it to ourselves for a few more days?"

No matter how they explained it, he knew there was going to be a bit of drama once the news broke. But like Charley said, in the end his bros would want them both to be happy. They knew better than anyone just how much he cared about the spirited human, and once they got past the fact that he had most definitely _not_ taken advantage of the situation, they would be ecstatic that the two of them were finally together.

But for now, he wanted to savor these special moments they shared. He had waited for this for so long, having her here in his arms like this felt like a dream. Heart burning with love, he held her even closer and kissed her until they were both gasping for breath. Placing her head on his shoulder, Charley nodded in understanding. "Sunday," she said dreamily. "We'll tell them on Sunday."

It was Wednesday, so that was...sooner than he would have liked, but he nodded in agreement. Charley lifted her head with a grin. "I'm planning something special for Saturday," she said coyly.

"Since when?" Vinnie wondered.

"Since just now. Come by after nightfall. I'll make dinner for just the two of us."

Just the two of them? Oh, yeah...Saturday was his turn to crash at the garage. They'd have the place all to themselves.

In fact, it was his turn to crash at the garage this very night--his first night to sleep alone in the rec room, while his bros slept over at the scoreboard. While his Charley-girl slept up in her apartment, just a few dozen feet away.

The two of them didn't make it back to the Last Chance until long after dark. They lingered on the eighteen mile trail for most of the afternoon, then walked back to his bike and rode to an outdoor café for dinner. When they finally pulled into the garage's lot, everything inside was quiet and dark, a sure sign that his bros had already left for the night.

Vinnie happily claimed the most comfortable sofa in the rec room (already occupied by a certain feline) then bade his Charley-girl goodnight outside the door that led into her apartment. "Sleep well, sweetheart," he murmured as they exchanged warm, lingering kisses.

Grinning suddenly, he pecked her nose. "Make sure I'm in your dreams all night, okay? I wouldn't want you to miss me."

Charley merely smiled in response, her eyes meeting his as she reached up to cup his face. Bringing herself closer to him, until he could feel the warmth of her skin through the thin material of her blouse, she drew her mouth over his in a way that made all the hairs on his body stand on end. He felt a smile spread across her lips before she pressed them more firmly to his, bringing one arm around his shoulders and the other around his back. The kisses she planted all over his mouth and muzzle were moist and hot.

She paused suddenly, pulling away just enough to lift her eyes. Her expression was shy, yet knowing. Expectant. "I won't have to miss you if you come upstairs with me."

Vinnie's heart skipped a beat. He felt his eyes widen. "What?"

Charley's smile was dazzling--and imploring. "Come upstairs," she repeated. "Please?"

The white mouse stared, dumbfounded. There was a part of him that was ready to holler 'hells yes!'...but he ignored it and slowly shook his head, though it took a _lot_ of willpower to get himself to do it. "I can't."

Disappointment filled her pretty eyes. "Why not?"

Vinnie shook his head again, as much to refuse her offer as it was in amazement that he was actually refusing. "I just can't. Not until I don't have any doubt left that you won't regret it later."

Charley was frowning at him now. "But I--"

He quickly pressed a silencing finger to her flushed lips, placed a chaste kiss on her forehead, then scurried out of the garage to his bike. When he got the scoreboard, both of his bros were settled down for the night and looked up in surprise when he came in. "Tonight's your turn," Modo reminded him.

Vinnie grunted before planting himself face-first in his hammock. "Can't," he mumbled, voice muffled. "Too tempting."

He heard a brief, whispered discussion, followed by the heavy sound of Modo's boots hitting the floor as he got up and hurried out. Grunting again, Vinnie rolled over and tried to make himself comfortable. Throttle was watching him with a funny look on his face. Admiration? A touch of guilt?

"You've really done great the last few weeks," he noted in a quiet voice. "Modo and I feel kinda bad about what we said before."

Vinnie flashed a brief smile before rolling to face the other way. "It's cool. No harm done."

* * *

The next morning dawned overcast, replacing yesterday's pale blue with a dull gray that thickly blanketed the sky, hiding the sun. When they got to the garage Charley already had a hot breakfast waiting for them: oatmeal drizzled with cinnamon and brown sugar. A little pedestrian for their tastes, but they scarfed everything down politely...though both Throttle and Modo discreetly dunked a few uncooked hot dogs into the mix when Charley wasn't looking. The pretty mechanic's bright green eyes were on Vinnie for most of the morning, so he didn't want to risk it.

And a good thing, too. Within a half-hour of clearing the table and loading the dish washer, both his bros' stomachs started grumbling loudly. By noon, they were battling to see who could make it to the bathroom first.

Snickering unsympathetically, Vinnie went to lounge in the rec room with his much-ignored medical books for a little while. Charley found him a few minutes later and quickly grabbed Tabitha, who had hopped up onto his shoulder the second he sat down and started rubbing her head and tail all over his face. Even though he wasn't reacting to her yet, he was relieved when Charley moved the playful kitten away.

Opening a book at random, Vinnie discreetly eyed the lovely redhead over the top of the pages. She was just as discreetly eyeing him over Tabitha's ears in return. "You annoyed with me?" he ventured.

Charley quickly shook her head. "Of course not. You were just being respectful. It was sweet of you."

She came closer and bent to kiss his cheek before heading out of the room. Smiling to himself, Vinnie settled back and focused on the open page in front of him--and felt like he'd just been punched in the stomach.

'The range of memory recovery can never be predicted,' the passage in the middle of the page read. 'Sometimes a patient will retain the memories created after memory loss first occurs in perfect clarity, while returning memories remain unclear or full of holes. And in some rare cases, the memories created between the time original memory is lost and then recovered are not retained.'

Vinnie reread the passage several times, but the meaning of the words didn't change. They clearly stated that, while uncommon, it was possible that the memories created from the time memory loss first occurred to the time original memory was restored could end up wiped.

The thought left him so shaken, the book slipped from his fingers as he let his head sink back against the sofa. For a long moment all he could do was stare at the ceiling, his mind reeling. All this time he had worried that what he and Charley had shared for the last couple of days might be taken away when she got her memory back because it would turn out that she didn't really love him. It never once entered his head that he might lose it all because she would end up forgetting.

Losing her because she didn't feel the same way about him would be bad enough, but to have her forget everything? All the times he held her? Whispered how he felt? How she would always smile, her eyes shining, as she whispered back that she felt the same? That was just cruel.

He lost track of time as he sat there, quietly replaying the last few days in his head, savoring each and every moment as he was chilled to the bone at the thought of those moments suddenly coming to an end, remembered by and known only to him. He didn't want to believe it could be true--that he could end up losing what he _finally_ had, after longing for and dreaming about it for so long.

But he knew there was no denying it. He never thought she could forget him in the first place, so if that could happen...so could this.

Vinnie sat there for a little while longer, feeling his anxiety build in his heart until it was pounding so hard he could hear it between his ears. He didn't get scared very often--make that almost never--but this was different from the kind of obstacles he normally faced. This was something he couldn't fight. Couldn't shoot his way through it. Couldn't hop on his bike and ride over it. Couldn't punch and kick it into oblivion.

He couldn't even turn to his bros for help. There wasn't anything they or anyone else could do. The only thing left was to wait and see what happened. And whatever happened, he was helpless to stop it. Completely helpless.

Abruptly, Vinnie bolted up from the sofa and ran for the door, just as Throttle came stumbling out of the bathroom. He was busy clutching his stomach and groaning to himself and didn't notice as the white mouse rushed out of the rec room. Vinnie quickly hunted for and found Charley in the kitchen, where she was quietly humming to herself as she made lunch for her and Tabitha.

She had been wearing a bathrobe and slippers at breakfast, but she had since changed into the same pale yellow dress she wore the day they first brought her home from the hospital. Against the gray of the dreary afternoon, she was like a spot of sunshine. Vinnie's heart flooded with so much love it hurt, and when he rushed forward and yanked her into his arms, Charley let out a gasp of surprise and dropped the butter knife she'd been holding.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her eyes filling with alarm.

Vinnie could only shake his head as he held her tighter, cupping her face in his quivering hands as he kissed her forehead, her face, her lips. He couldn't tell her. It wouldn't accomplish anything except scare her. Swallowing thickly, he drew her closer and kissed her for a long moment. "I-I just wanted to tell you how much I love you," he faltered, voice catching in his throat.

He pushed her hair back from her face as he looked into her eyes. "I love you more than anything," he told her quietly, his words loaded with promise. "Always have and always will. No matter what happens tomorrow, or today--or even five minutes from now. I will always, _always_ love you."

And please, he begged silently, don't you ever forget that.

* * *

Later that day the sky cleared and the sun came out, and just in time for Charley's latest checkup. She changed out of her delicate dress and into snug jeans and a t-shirt before heading over to the doctor's office with Vinnie. The white mouse was never a fan of sitting still for very long, so instead of fidgeting impatiently in the waiting room this time, he slipped out of the office and took a walk around the block. He wasn't expecting anything to happen before he made the round trip back to the office...but as he rounded the first turn, he found himself walking past a small shop sitting on the corner.

Something on display in the window caught his eye--something he immediately pictured giving his Charley-girl when they met for dinner this Saturday. Or maybe he'd save it for Sunday, after they broke the news of their relationship to his bros. He'd wing it.

He hurried into the shop, made his purchase, then hurried back to the doctor's office just in time to meet Charley coming out of the exam room. The doctor was pleased with the progress of her wrist and said that she could take off her brace as early as next week. Charley was thrilled with the news (she was getting tired of the bulky accessory, since it clashed with her outfits and was starting to get grubby) and practically skipped inside when she and Vinnie got back to the garage.

After giving a status report to the other two, Charley playfully grabbed Vinnie by the shoulders and pushed him toward the rec room with a giggle. "The doc says I need to keep my wrist active, so it won't go to pot," she told him. "So that means you have to play pool with me."

Vinnie snickered and let her push him to the rec room doorway. "Well, don't think I'm going to go easy on you just because..."

He trailed off. His bros had gone awfully quiet all of a sudden, and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw that they both had that 'something's up' look on their faces. Modo was sniffing the air. "You smell that?" he asked.

Vinnie took a sniff. Charley, who had stopped pushing him, did the same. She stepped back with a grimace. "It's that awful stink again," she complained of the distinct odor in the air, putting a hand to her nose.

Throttle was grinning. "It's grease," he said. "And where there's grease, there's Greasepit."

The three mice were already heading for their bikes, their grins matching. It had been too long since they had gotten to tear through the streets, blowing stuff up and sending dumb goons running home with frightened squeals. Charley was watching their growing excitement, her expression nervous now. "Doesn't he work for that alien fish-guy you're always fighting?" she asked.

"Don't worry," Modo told her with a chuckle as he mounted his bike. "He's pretty harmless."

Throttle was already mounted and ready to go. He thumped his helmet firmly in place, then looked over at Charley. "Should we take her with?" he wondered.

Charley bugged her eyes. "Me?" she squeaked.

"Might be a good idea," Modo agreed. "She should stay with us in case someone comes sneakin' around while we're gone."

"Plus riding into danger just might turn out to be good for her," Throttle added. "The adrenaline rush might jog something."

Vinnie's heart flip-flopped, and for more reason than one. For one thing his Charley-girl didn't remember how to defend herself...and for another, he was scared of what might happen when she _did_ remember.

But he knew he had no business trying to keep those memories from returning, no matter what wound up happening. Recovering was what was best for her, even if she ended up forgetting what they had shared the last few days. Or maybe she would remember it all and never speak to him again as a result. Either way he...was getting a headache from thinking about it, and he pressed a hand to the side of his head with a quiet groan before putting his helmet on. Sensing his distress, his bike puttered sympathetically as he hopped on.

Charley shrank back, her uneasiness plain. "You sure it wouldn't be safer if I just stayed here?"

"It'll be fine," Throttle assured her. He glanced at Vinnie, who was trying to think of something to say but couldn't. "Vinnie'll take care of you. He'll just have to keep back in case things get dangerous. You can do that, right?"

The white mouse scowled in annoyance. "Yes," he grumbled.

It took a little coaxing, but he eventually convinced Charley that he would keep a few feet behind the others, and if things really started to get messy, he'd take her to safety. She didn't look like she believed this was a good idea, but she climbed on behind him and held on tightly. She trusted him, Vinnie realized as he secured her in place with his tail like he always did--trusted him to keep her safe. The thought made his heart pang him as he remembered all over again that it was _his_ screw-up that started all this in the first place.

In the end he changed his mind; riding hard and fast and blowing up everything he possibly could was just what he needed to clear his head right now, and he let out a loud whoop as he followed his bros out of the garage. It didn't take them long to track down the source of the strong smell in the air, or the rough group of goons and thugs who were busy putting together some equipment in the middle of the empty street.

What were they trying to do? The mice didn't know, and they didn't ask. They just started blasting and cackled in delight as the explosions and shrieks of fear started up. It really had been too long, and racing out in the night air amidst the smell of smoke and blaster fire felt great.

At least it did to Vinnie, but an insistent tapping on his shoulder right in the middle of his fun told him that someone else wasn't quite so keen on it. He slowed down and looked over his shoulder while is bros roared on ahead. "You okay, sweetheart?"

Charley looked pale, and she was shrinking down behind him like she was trying to make herself invisible. "I want to go back," she said faintly. "This is too scary."

Scary? More like a blast. "Maybe you'd feel better if you had remembered to bring your bazooka," he teased.

"My...?"

Charley managed to look paler still, and she pressed her face against his back with a whimper. Seeing that she really was scared, Vinnie's heart softened; he took a quick glance around. The smoldering street was empty and quiet. It shouldn't hurt to leave her here for a couple of minutes. "Take five, Charley-girl," he told her, as he gently lifted her off his bike with his tail and deposited her on her feet. "I'll be back before you know it."

He pinched her nose affectionately, then raced off to catch up with his bros. When he looked back, he caught sight of Charley heading over to an alley between two brick buildings on the right-hand side of the street, disappearing from sight.

His bros were just up ahead, facing off against a pair of angry-looking goons armed with mini grenades. Modo had gotten off his bike and was knocking the grenades right back where they came from with a metal pipe he'd found. Grinning, Vinnie thought about how if Charley was watching right now, she'd dryly point out that hitting grenades with a pipe probably wasn't a very good idea. But since she wasn't, he pulled his bike to a stop and waved for attention. "C'mon, don't hog all the fun!"

Modo let out a laugh. "You asked for it," he said, before knocking a grenade in his direction.

Unfortunately it was the last one, since the goons had finally gotten wise to the fact that anything they threw would just come flying back--or maybe they'd just run out. It was hard to tell with these guys sometimes. Vinnie tried to make his fun with the last grenade count, but he ended up fumbling when he tried to catch it. Throttle attempted to casually come to the rescue--but when he gave the explosive a sharp kick, he wound up sending it the wrong way, back over their heads and down the road where they came from. "Whoops."

Sighing, Vinnie gave his shoulder a pat. "Nice one, bro."

The grenade detonated in the distance and they went back to work, which didn't last for much longer. The streets were soon cleared and safe for the night, and they high-fived and congratulated each other--and themselves--before riding back to pick up Charley.

Only when they neared the alley Vinnie saw her dart into, he felt his heart come slamming to a halt.

Throttle mumbled something under his breath that made Modo blush. You could almost hear it as their three minds simultaneously replayed the events of the last few minutes, picturing who had the grenade first and who had it last. They'd each had it, even if Throttle had been the one to kick it, and there was an almost audible click as they each decided at the same time that whatever came from this, they each shared in the blame.

The thought only passed through Vinnie's mind for a brief second before he jumped off his bike and ran ahead, making his way past the chunks of sidewalk that now littered the ground. The corner of the building in front of the alley Charley was hiding in had been completely blown out, sending bricks everywhere. The ground was scorched and there was dust and smoke in the air.

Vinnie was too panicked to call out. His mind was flooding with horrific visions of what he was about to find and his throat closed as he stumbled forward, tripping over concrete debris as he made it to the alley. His bros were right as his heels, their worry almost as strong as his own. Almost.

The explosion had taken out a streetlight, leaving the alley dark and shadowed. It took his eyes a second to adjust, and when they did, they soon tracked down and zeroed in on the figure slumped against the wall on the left side, surrounded by a wisp of fading smoke. A mixture of fear and relief roiled inside him; the other building had taken the full force of the blast, so there was only a handful of bricks scattered in the alley. Charley had moved back several feet and didn't look like she had been hurt.

Most likely she had only been shaken up by the force of the blast, and he hurried forward and put a hand out to steady her. She was leaning against the wall with her hand pressed to the side of her head, and she groaned quietly as she rested against him, eyes closed.

Vinnie pushed her hair back from her face. "Are you okay?" he asked, not caring when he heard his voice shake.

His bros hovered at his side, their faces loaded with concern. "You're not hurt, are you, Charley-ma'am?" Modo asked tentatively.

"We kind of got carried away, there," Throttle mumbled, shoulders sagging in remorse.

Charley gave her head a shake and opened her eyes. "I'm okay," she said faintly. "Just a little dizzy."

Vinnie was so relieved he pulled her into his arms and hugged her. He knew his bros were watching, but he didn't care. Maybe they'd tell them tonight instead of waiting till Sunday.

With a tired smile, Charley gave his shoulder a pat before edging away from his arms. She opened her mouth to say something...then closed it, a funny look crossing her face as she looked down at herself. She tugged at the fabric of her baby-doll t-shirt like she had never seen it before. Her eyes traveled down to her tight jeans, the cuffs rolled up so part of her calves were exposed.

"What the heck am I doing in this twinkie little outfit?"

Modo shrugged, looking puzzled. "You put it on before leavin' for the doctor," he reminded her.

The mechanic stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "Doctor? What are you talking about? Weren't we going camping?"

After a brief silence marked by blank stares, realization dawned for the three of them almost at the same time. Throttle stepped forward first, giving her shoulder a playful squeeze as he let out a chuckle of relief. "I think she's back."

Charley lifted her eyebrows dryly. "Where was I?"

Laughing openly now, the tan and gray mice both put their arms around her as they guided her back to their bikes...while Vinnie stood feeling like the ground had just been pulled out from under him.

"It's a long story, Charley-ma'am. We'll tell you all about it on the way home."


	8. Chapter 8

Vinnie was so numb he couldn't say a word during the ride back to the garage. Barely aware of how tightly he was clutching the handlebars, he kept silent and waited for a sign--a sign that the worst case scenario didn't just come true. But that sign never came.

Instead, there was every sign that Charley had no memory whatsoever of the time that passed between when she fell off his bike down the side of the hill and when she shook herself out of her daze after being rattled by the explosion just a few minutes ago. She had a few vague memories of their afternoon at the outdoor festival, but that was about it. She listened, incredulous, as his bros explained how she had taken a bump to the head and ended up with amnesia for over two weeks.

The two of them were kind enough to leave the details fuzzy about whose fault it was that she had fallen like that...but it didn't really matter. She didn't have any reason to be mad about something she couldn't remember, and she brushed the conversation aside with a brief wave of her hand before heading into the garage. Just like that, the last two weeks were gone.

There was a short, quiet discussion between his bros about if they should stick around to make sure she was okay...but they quickly decided against it. The tired, distracted look on Charley's face as she locked up for the night clearly said that she wanted to be alone. She needed to rest, but she didn't need them to keep an eye on her anymore. Didn't need anyone to hover around her throughout the day. Didn't need anyone to bring lunch up to her room. Didn't need anyone to come tuck her in after she went to bed.

As he rode to the scoreboard, Vinnie wondered distantly how many times his heart could break in one night.

* * *

The next morning dawned even grayer than yesterday--or maybe it was just him. Ordinarily Vinnie would unload his troubles on his bros...but not this time. He needed to keep this all to himself, and he tried hard to keep the pain he felt inside from showing on his face as the three of them, out of habit, road straight to the garage as soon as they woke up. He could tell his bros were as anxious as he was to make sure that Charley was really all right--and Vinnie had another reason to be anxious. He wanted to know if, somehow, something had changed while he slept.

When they got to the Last Chance, both his bros breathed a sigh of relief...while Vinnie's shattered heart sank like a stone. Looking around, it was like everything that happened since Charley came home from the hospital had been smoothly and swiftly erased. The garage was open for business and the sounds signaling that the owner was hard at work in the back were loud and clear. Inside, her tools had been taken out and there were parts lined up on tables, ready for her skilled hands to work their magic.

"You okay there, bro?" Throttle suddenly asked. "You're being abnormally quiet."

Vinnie felt too beaten to get annoyed by the remark. He knew he needed to be more energetic and talk more than he was--he had barely said a word since they road home last night--but he just didn't have it in him right now. Maybe he'd fake getting sick or something so no one would get suspicious.

Sighing, he gave a shrug and mumbled, "I dunno. Something's missing."

Looking around the room, at how every last detail was back to the way it used to be, it dawned on him that something _was_ missing. He didn't trip over Tabitha as she rubbed herself all over his ankles the second he stepped through the door.

They soon learned that Charley had given her away first thing this morning. Vinnie wouldn't have thought it was possible, but he actually missed her jumping on his lap whenever he sat down.

The kitten wasn't the only thing missing. Charley's girlier wardrobe had also disappeared, no doubt shoved into cardboard boxes bound for the curb. She had also stopped wearing her wrist brace during the day, since it got in the way as she worked. His bros, having no reason not to be, were perfectly happy with having the old Charley back. Vinnie was too--it didn't matter how she dressed. Charley was still Charley, whether she was wearing a sundress or covered in motor oil. The only thing wrong with her getting her memory back was the fact that she had forgotten all the times she'd told him she loved him.

But maybe that was the problem, he reminded himself darkly. Maybe she never loved him in the first place--maybe it had all just been a mistake. All the times she had smiled at him, touched his face, kissed him so tenderly...just a mistake.

He didn't want to believe it, but as the days went by, he never saw any hints that he might be wrong. He tried not to hover too obviously while he kept a close eye on Charley-girl, but he didn't see any sign that suggested that the memories they made together were still around, lurking in her mind somewhere. More than once when he wasn't looking he suddenly got the feeling that she was watching him...but each time he turned around, she was facing the other way.

She didn't talk about the last few weeks or ask any questions about what she had missed. When she wasn't focused on her work, she was interacting with them just like she always did, like nothing had changed. Vinnie tried to keep up the act that nothing had changed for him either, but after a while he got the feeling that he was putting out a vibe that something was off, because he noticed that Charley acted a little funny whenever they were alone. It was subtle, but he definitely got the impression that she was trying to keep her distance. He couldn't blame her; bad moods were repellent.

There was no helping how he felt right now. After getting a taste of what he could have, he didn't know how to cope with losing it. Acting like he'd never had it. How to accept that what he'd grasped for so briefly had slipped from his fingers. He tried to put on a smile, but inside, his broken heart throbbed like he never thought it could.

And then one day, after he'd dumped his collection of medical texts back at the library, a thought struck him. Charley had carried that notepad of hers around with her every day since the doctor at the small-town hospital first gave it to her. She had been writing down everything she saw, thought--and felt. There had to be something in there about him, and the feelings she began to realize she had for him.

He didn't know what he was going to say if that turned out to be true; hand it to her awkwardly and say 'have you read this lately?' He'd work that part out later. Finding the notepad gave him a much-needed burst of hope, even if the only person he reminded of Charley's affection for him was himself. Seeing her thoughts put into words would--hopefully--ease his pain a little. Help him remember that it hadn't all just been a dream.

But when he hunted through the garage for it, it was nowhere to be found. Not knowing what else to do, he casually asked Charley-girl, in case she had dumped it along with her clothes, but she didn't remember seeing any notepad recently. Vinnie thought hard; he remembered her having it with her the last time he took her to the doctor's office. But now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen her carrying it when they got back.

One quick trip to the office later, he learned from the secretary that yes, someone had left a notepad in the office a few days. But no, they didn't have a lost-and-found. Translation: someone threw it out.

Drooping in defeat, Vinnie trudged out of the office. That tapped him for ideas. "Guess you might as well face it," he mumbled to himself. "Those memories are gone."

She'd forgotten their day at the zoo, their first kiss in the park, their lazy afternoon on Lakefront Trail. It had all happened just a short time ago...but it might as well have never happened at all. He was the one who needed to forget now.

If only he knew how. The entire city was loaded with memories, and that day it felt like everywhere he looked, something reminded him of Charley. Of how much he loved her. Even if he could wipe the last few weeks from his mind, it wouldn't change anything. He had loved her for a lot longer than that, and his heart ached and his emotions burned raw as he found himself walking Lakefront Trail, retracing the steps they took the other day.

The sky overhead was as grim as his mood, and thunder rumbled as he dropped to the same bench they had kissed and cuddled on. There was a clink as the seat of his pants hit the wood; his heart ached worse than ever. He had forgotten all about that.

With a pain-filled sigh, Vinnie reached back and tugged the small box out of his back pocket. Inside was the gift he had been planning to surprise Charley with. A thick lump formed in his throat as he nudged the lid of the box open and looked down at the little locket nestled inside.

It was simple and inexpensive, gold-colored but not gold. Heart-shaped--naturally--with a clear rhinestone in the center. It was medium-sized, just big enough to fit the photo he'd had on him that day. His bros were in it too, but he'd hastily cut out the part with just himself and pressed it into the locket before rushing out of the shop. It was a good shot of him too, his grin not too wide and the camera hitting him at just the right angle to show off what a stud he was.

But that wasn't the best part--the part that made the lump in his throat heavier and his eyes sting and cloud suspiciously. No...that was the note he had written and tucked into the box while the cashier rang up the locket. Short and to the point: 'Now you really have my heart.'

His hands shook as he slapped the box shut. He squeezed it between his palms, but the shaking didn't stop. Swallowing repeatedly, he got to his feet and started moving blindly forward. His mind had gone numb and he was barely aware of what he was doing until his uneven steps touched the sand of the small beach on the other side of the path. Thunder rumbled loudly and the wind started to pick up, churning the waters of Lake Michigan before him. The sky was growing dark as the storm rolled in, making the waves look black.

Vinnie pictured how bright and beautiful everything had looked the last time he was here--pictured who he had been with, how the sunlight had hit her hair as she put her arms around him, the way she had smiled at him, her cheeks pink and her eyes shining with love.

Something inside him broke. His vision blurring, he flung his hand out with a strained grunt. The little box sailed up to the murky sky for a second before arcing back down and into the water with a tiny splash. It was followed by a torrent of small splashes as the clouds overhead burst open and raindrops started hitting the lake.

The rain was thick and cold and the drops were soon soaking through his fur and jeans, but Vinnie barely noticed. He shuffled absently back to the bench, where under the cover of rainfall and thunder he sat and sank his head into his hands.

Big, buff mice like him weren't supposed to cry. But in the rain, no one would be able to tell.

* * *

It was so dark when Vinnie finally hauled himself off the bench and got on his bike, he wasn't sure if night had fallen already or if it was just a really bad storm. It was pouring hard and heavy and he was soaked to his skin, and so chilled he could barely steer from shivering so hard. He grumbled inwardly as he navigated crookedly through the empty streets, grateful to be alone in his misery--just him and his bike. All he needed to do now was catch a nice big cold and his life would be complete.

He really needed to get to the scoreboard and dry off, but the rain was coming down in thick sheets and the sky was pitch black, so he could barely see where he was going. He switched his bike's headlights on, but that was no help; they just illuminated the rain, reflecting back a wall of white that stung his tired eyes. At least his helmet visor was keeping his face from getting wet. Well, wetter.

After squinting into the deluge vainly for a little longer, Vinnie gave up and loosened his grip on the handlebars. Go on, he thought tiredly, knowing his bike would understand. Take us home.

His red sweetheart hummed quietly in response before picking up speed. Unaffected by the relentless rain, she turned corners and steered smoothly down side streets before turning and parking in a rain-slicked lot. Vinnie scrubbed the back of his hand over his visor and looked up at the sign above him, brightly lit as if to welcome him back.

His heart sank. They were at the garage. But the sweet girl didn't know any better, and he gave her an affection pat before he dismounted and shuffled to the door. Better to head inside and grin and bear it than stay out here and get pneumonia. Shivering harder than ever, he sloshed through a puddle and went in.

The lights were on outside, but there weren't any on inside that he could see. He couldn't see a thing, and he stumbled in the darkness, bumping into things and knocking something over. Groaning quietly, he held still--or tried to, at least. He hunched over and rubbed his arms, trying to coax a little warmth back into his body, but he couldn't stop shivering.

He was still grumbling about it when a door creaked open. A soft light appeared, warm and golden, silhouetting the figure standing in the doorway. "Vinnie?"

The tired mouse flashed a weak smile. "Hey, Charley-girl. Sorry to drop in like this, I just..."

Charley hurried forward, pulled his helmet off and pressed a hand to his cheek. Vinnie hoped she didn't question the dampness. "You're freezing," she said, sounding dismayed.

Before he could respond, she had taken his hand and tugged him through the garage. They stepped through the doorway leading to her apartment and were soon standing in the little hallway outside her kitchen. The mysterious golden light was brighter here, but his tired eyes hadn't found the source yet.

Charley let go out his hand, rushed upstairs and came back with a towel. She wordlessly began drying him off, and Vinnie wordlessly held still and let her...while he was painfully reminded of that day they came back from the zoo and he did the same for her. In his mind he saw himself drying her hair, the soft kiss they shared...

His eyes clouded again and he quickly squeezed them shut before she noticed. Slowly, his shivering eased a little as Charley rubbed warmth back into his arms and hands. She reached up to dry off his shoulders and neck. Pausing, her hand suddenly rested on his cheek. Her thumb brushed his muzzle. "Hey."

Vinnie cracked his eyes open slowly. They blurred a little, but he blinked them clear and opened them fully. Charley came into focus, lit by the golden light from head to toe and looking like she was glowing. Vinnie stared.

Charley had her hair pulled back on one side with a fancy gold clip. Her cheeks were rosy and her lips were pink. And she was wearing a dress--a green velvet one, with a cinched waist and a knee-length skirt that flared a little and a neckline that showed just enough to get his blood warming. There were decorative gold buttons at the base of the wide straps, and there was a gold bracelet on her wrist. For shoes she had on green heels.

She was an absolute knockout, and the unexpected sight stole his breath clean away. He would never have thought she'd go for a look like this in a million years. It was as if the innocent flirty girl with amnesia and the smart tomboy mechanic had shaken hands and said 'let's compromise.'

There was no way she could possibly look more beautiful, and seeing her like this made his heart throb as he remembered all over again that she wasn't his anymore. He couldn't act on his sudden impulse to pull this vision into his arms. Vowing to keep his eyes dry until he got out of here, he forced a smile. "What's the occasion?"

Charley's eyes studied him as she folded the soggy towel and set it aside. She was searching his face, his eyes. It was much more subtle, but all of a sudden he recognized the look on her face. It was the same anxiously hopeful look she had given him right before she asked him if he loved her. A soft smile touched her lips. "It's Saturday."

Vinnie furrowed his brow, not understanding. Not at first. But then his confused gaze looked behind her. The golden light was coming from the kitchen--from a ring of candles set out on the kitchen table. A white linen cloth had been laid out and two places had been set with fancy dishes and silverware. Two wine glasses fizzled with root beer. The plates steamed with home cooked food, fresh from the oven.

When realization sunk in, it felt like the whole world shifted. His breath hitching, Vinnie focused on Charley again. She was nibbling her bottom lip as she watched him, her green eyes anxious, hopeful, expectant.

It couldn't be. But there was no other explanation. Heart pounding and head swimming, Vinnie could think of only one way he could be sure. He cupped that beautiful face in his trembling fingers and kissed her pink, parted lips. She was so warm and felt so inviting; her lips tasted like cherries. Dizzy with hope, Vinnie wrapped her tightly in his arms, clutching her to his chest until he could feel her heart beating. He held her with an almost palpable need to never let her go again and kissed her over and over, even as he braced himself for her to push him away.

Instead, she wiggled her arms free so she could wrap them around him, hugging him as tightly as she could as she rose on tiptoe. She met each of his desperate kisses breathlessly, her rosy cheeks turning even rosier. She was trembling in his arms, and her eyes were moist as she kissed and nuzzled his face.

With a shaky exhale of breath, she laid her cheek on his shoulder and stroked the back of his head. "I didn't know what to think," she told him, a tremor in her quiet voice. "I could remember it all but it was so faint and far away, like a dream--a beautiful dream."

She gave her head a shake and tightened her arms around his neck. "I didn't want it to be a dream. I wanted to keep what I found while I forgot to let pride and fear get in the way of how I felt. But I had no idea what to say or do, in case none of it was really real."

Smiling softly, Charley lifted her head and touched his face. She traced his muzzle, his forehead, her eyes drinking him in--like she was looking at something beautiful and amazing. "So I kept quiet and waited. I remembered we were supposed to meet on Saturday, so...I knew that if you came, then it wasn't just a dream. I knew that you'd really be mine."

She cupped his face and rested her forehead against his. "And here you are," she whispered. "Mine."

Vinnie gazed into her eyes for a second more--before yanking her against him and kissing her so suddenly she let out a startled gasp. She said it wasn't a dream, but he was still convincing himself that this was real. That the woman in his arms wasn't just going to melt away and disappear. He held her as tight as he dared and kissed her lips until she was gasping for breath, and when she turned her head away for air he kissed her exposed throat, pressed his face into the softness of her hair. He inhaled deeply; she smelled as unreal as she looked.

"Yours," he confirmed, his voice thick. "Always yours."

"I know."

Smiling, she drew her hand over his head. "I remember what you told me. I'll never forget those words."

Her eyes moistened again as she lifted his chin and kissed him. "I love you too. Always."

Vinnie let his breath out slowly and closed his eyes...but he didn't mind that he was tearing up, too. He rested his cheek on his Charley-girl's shoulder and let her stroke his head, his ears, vulnerable in a way he would never let himself be with anyone else. He let her hold him and whisper that everything was all right now while all the pain he'd endured today slipped and faded until it was gone.

He felt drained afterward, and he smiled sleepily as he picked his head up. Charley smiled in return, kissed him tenderly, then took his hands and led him into the kitchen. "You ready to eat?"

"In a minute," he said, though as they drew closer to the table he noticed that the food smelled awfully good. "I'm still savoring this."

Her eyes were full of understanding, and her smile was loving and tender as he drew his fingers over her cheek. "Now you know," he told her softly. "My heart belongs to you and only you."

His own words made him pause. He had a flash of memory of throwing the locket into the lake. His heart sank. "I-I had a present for you," he faltered. "But..."

Vinnie smiled sheepishly. "I, uh, lost it."

Charley's expression was serious as she put her arms around his neck. She gave her head a small shake before kissing his forehead. Her green eyes looked deeply into his pink ones.

"I don't need presents, Vincent. I'm happy just having you."

_~Fin~_


End file.
